By Wendy Warren, CEO, EllieB’s
How many times have you woken in a fog, your mind already racing through errands and to-do lists before your feet have even touched the floor? Your stomach is in a knot before you’ve even decided what to have for breakfast.
Then you head out into the world, someone asks, “How are you?” and, almost automatically, you reply: “Good, thanks.”
But maybe you’re not.
And maybe they’re not either.
Life seems to spin around us at an increasingly relentless pace. “Busy” is the word we repeat week after week. We’re more connected by technology than ever, yet often more physically disconnected from one another. The news can feel heavy. The cost of living is weighing on families. And sometimes it feels as though life simply doesn’t stop long enough for us to just… breathe.
World Mental Health Day is always acknowledged in October, and this year’s theme was Together we thrive!
It’s an important day — and October, World Mental Health Month, is an important opportunity — to raise awareness, reduce stigma and encourage people to seek support when they need it.
But these are conversations worth having every day of the year.
“The 2026 theme acknowledges that connection is one of the most powerful ways we can support our mental health and wellbeing,” EllieB’s CEO Wendy Warren said.
“At EllieB’s, everything we do is about fostering strong, caring and protective connections with our clients and their families. And those connections don’t just help our clients — they fill our cups too.”
Something as simple as asking, “Are you okay?” — and then creating the time and space for someone to answer honestly — can be incredibly powerful. Especially in our world at EllieB’s.
For parents, family members and carers of people living with intellectual disability, being genuinely asked how they’re going can create an opportunity to share some of the worry, pressure, exhaustion or responsibility they may have been quietly carrying — instead of carrying it alone for another day.
Creating the time and space for someone to answer that question honestly can be incredibly important.
Wendy Warren, EllieB’s CEO
For our participants, it means remembering that they too experience a full and complex range of emotions, and deserve the time, support and space to express how they’re feeling.
And for our team, it means continuing to look out for one another and recognising that caring for others also means caring for the people who provide that care.
Sometimes we ask, “How are you?” without really expecting an answer.
This World Mental Health Day, we’re asking our community to think about the power of such a simple question — and to carry that thinking well beyond October 10.
Ask it consciously. Mean it. And, perhaps most importantly, make enough space for someone to tell you the truth.
Because connection matters.
And so does the conversation.
For all of us.
