Simple acts of kindness can ease the stress of an unprecedented year, the health minister said yesterday.

Kim Wilson, speaking at an event to mark last Saturday’s end of Mental Health Awareness Week, appealed to the public to continue the event’s theme of consideration for others.

Ms Wilson said: “Although this is the official closing, it’s officially a call to the Bermuda community to keep being kind.”

She said more kindness should be used in social interactions, conduct on social media or by e-mail — and even the House of Assembly.

Ms Wilson added: “It’s important not just because it’s the right thing to do, but it also has a concrete impact on mental wellbeing.”

She said kindness released the brain chemical serotonin which caused what has been dubbed the “helper’s high”.

Ms Wilson was joined on the steps of City Hall in Hamilton by Charles Gosling, the Mayor. Mr Gosling told the crowd: “In the recent trying time Covid-19 has inflicted on us, now more than ever we must recognise and reach out to those around us.”

Michael Richmond, the chief executive of the Bermuda Hospitals Board, said: “Patients do not feel safe, even if they are getting the best treatments, without kindness. This is true whether physically or mentally ill, with a chronic illness or addiction, after an accident, or with acute mental illness or stroke.

“We can feel alone and vulnerable in those moments — and kindness can be a single ray of light in an otherwise dark landscape.”