Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England is calling on everyone to ‘Take 10 Together’ and take ten minutes to start a conversation about mental health. This can be an easy way to make time in your schedule to get your staff talking and thinking about their wellbeing.
Toolkit
Mental Health at Work Commitment Standard 3 resources
One of the best ways to raise awareness about mental health and challenge stigma is to encourage conversation about it. Another way is to empower individuals in an organisation to take an active role in championing the issue. Both help create a culture where people feel able to come forward if they need support. It’s clear that passionate employees and volunteers, at any level of the organisation, are often the drivers of that cultural change.
And, as an employer, fostering an environment in which these conversations can take place, and supporting grassroots enthusiasm to champion mental health issues, plays an integral role in keeping staff well.
Resources in this toolkit:
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This is Me
This is Me is a business-led campaign to support organisations, and their employees, to talk about mental health. It encourages people with experience of a mental health problem, whether their own or of a loved one, to share their stories. It may help encourage your employees to talk about their own concerns.
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Start the conversation
One of the first, and easiest, things you can do to start improving mental health at work is simply to start a conversation. In this video, people from various industries talk about the importance of talking to someone.
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Setting up a Wellness Action Plan (WAP)
Wellness Action Plans (WAPs) are for everyone, not just someone who has a problem right now. For all of us, it’s important to stay aware of our mental health work, and a WAP can help with this. This guide shows what to consider when introducing WAPs to your organisation.
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This guide from Nuffield Health can help employees to plan who to speak to and what to say when discussing their mental health at work. You may like to share this guide in your organisation to help staff feel confident when disclosing their concerns.
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St Mungo’s Diversity Networks
Networks are a great way of connecting staff who have similar experiences and backgrounds. This is an example of networks available at St Mungo's, and may help you think about what networks you might like to introduce in your own workplace.
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This short article from the Institute of Directors (IoD) talks about steps you can take to ensure a positive working environment in your business.
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This one-page PDF suggests some warning signs to look out for that could indicate someone is experiencing poor mental or emotional wellbeing. You might like to share it with your employees.
Not all managers feel confident and comfortable talking about mental health. But it’s important that you do, and the information in this guide will help you know what to do if an employee talks to you about their mental health.
