Supporting mental health in the workplace

Today is World Mental Health Day and this year’s theme is mental health in the workplace.

This year in particular, we’ve seen a rise in mental health issues being openly discussed.  With well-known celebrities and members of the Royal Family talking about mental wellbeing, it’s certainly a subject that’s not going unnoticed.  And I’m sure this celebrity support has resulted in a major increase in awareness, which can only be a good thing.

To me it makes sense that mental health is also tackled in the workplace.  As adults, we spend a lot of our time at work, and it’s been well documented that mental health issues can have a significant impact on employee wellbeing.

I’m a firm believer that employers should promote good mental health and provide support to those experiencing mental ill health, be that anxiety, depression or a more complex illness such as schizophrenia.

Of course, how far an organisation chooses to take their mental wellbeing support is up to them, but increasingly there is more support out there for employers, so it’s my belief that all employers should be doing something.   That could be using these awareness days to promote mental wellbeing and the traditional employee assistance programme (EAP), or looking at the workplace materials available through organisations such as MIND, which can provide ideas on supporting mental wellbeing.

Taking things further, I believe every organisation should have at least one mental health first aider, and where possible, all managers should have some form of mental health training.  HR and Managers who attend one of these courses will be able to recognise the early signs of mental ill health and put the right kind of support in place to help employees.  Recognition and early intervention can be vital in helping to aid recovery of employees, as well as helping organisations manage absence levels and those returning to work.

At Secondsight we run a number of initiatives to aid employee wellbeing; mental health first aid (MHFA) courses, which we run in conjunction with Mental Health First Aid UK, financial education programmes as we know that stress and anxiety surrounding finances can lead to mental ill health and traditional group risk and healthcare benefits.  But ultimately, mental wellbeing in the workplace has to come down to the employer.

Should you wish to find out more about wellbeing in the workplace, you can download a copy of our guide.

By Morag Livingston, Head of Group Risk and Wellbeing, Secondsight