Mind Matters: Celebrating World Brain Day, 22 July

jenniferacarr5
12 minutes ago
2 min read

What is World Brain Day?

World Brain Day is a day led by the World Federation of Neurology to raise awareness of neurological conditions and brain health. Your brain is so important but so often not looked after properly, so World Brain Day hopes to highlight how important brains are and simple things to do to improve your brain health.

This Year's Theme

This year, the theme is "Brain Health and Access for All" and falls on the 22nd of July 2026.

Why Awareness Matters

It is important to raise awareness because diseases affecting the brain are currently the main cause of disability around the world, affecting around 3.2 billion people worldwide.

The Access Problem

As only 3% of the world's population have direct access to a neurologist, it is massively important to raise awareness through social media, give talks and do research to try and make information about neurological disorders and the brain more well known and accessible.²

Things for you to do to support World Brain Day:

Raise awareness of brain disorders and how to keep your brain healthy through looking it up and create social media posts or reels.
Check in with a doctor or other professional to check your health as a lot of brain disorders can be prevented through small lifestyle changes.
Join the webinar on the 22^nd of July which is lead by the World Federation of Neurology.³

As 1 in 3 people will get diagnosed with a brain disorder at some point in their life, here are a few small changes to make which can help decrease your risk of being diagnosed with one:

Stimulate your brain through problem solving, such as crosswords, sudoku and word searches
Exercise if you are able to
Avoid tobacco, drugs and alcohol
Aim to sleep well
Check in with a doctor if you feel like anything has changed⁴
Try to eat fresh, nutritious and healthy food

How to help someone with a disorder affecting their brain:⁵

Understand what their symptoms by either asking them or looking through the NHS website.
Be aware that they and their personality may change.
Each person will have different needs for their conditions so will have or will need support tailored to them, by communicating with the person you can work out if this more personal support is something they want or you can help with.
Help if you are able to, this can look like anything, whether it is big or small it does not matter and makes a big difference. Often the small things, like keeping them company, bringing some baked goods or texting saying hi, mean the most.

How to get support if you are struggling:

Your first point of contact should be the NHS who can refer you to a specialist team who will better understand and be able to help you needs.
For further support, The Brain Charity can help with understanding, counselling, advice and more.⁶ https://www.thebraincharity.org.uk/
Cards for Bravery can help with giving activity packs, bravery packages and cards.⁷