Time To Get Ready For World Mental Health Day

What is your workplace doing on World Mental Health Day? It’s coming up on Tuesday, October 10th, and the theme is Workplace Mental Health.

Ask your boss, line manager and co-workers if anything is planned. If not, do something! There’s still time to organise an event to raise awareness on Tuesday that we all have mental health. De-stigmatising that conversation in the workplace is paramount.

The charity Mind has some excellent tips for improving Workplace Mental Health here. Maybe one of these can be something your office does together on Tuesday? For example, a group walk, a lunchtime game of football, a picnic (here’s hoping for good weather!).

Mental Health First Aid England has a Workplace Wellbeing toolkit you can download for World Mental Health Day. It is a strategic guide to developing a mentally healthy work environment. A place people can thrive and be their most productive.

As a County Councillor I recently spoke in favour of a motion to improve early intervention services in our schools in Oxfordshire, so that young people get better support at the first sign of mental distress.

We need similar early intervention in our workplaces. Stress, depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation are all omnipresent but often not talked about. People cope and struggle on, and the problems get bigger. Early intervention with mental health issues makes a huge difference. Find out what is in place at your workplace for mental health support. Do you have Mental Health First Aiders? Is there a culture of openness around mental health issues? Are people comfortable sharing mental health concerns? Is mental well-being a priority?

Use World Mental Health Day to make your workplace one which supports mental well-being. Think of it as a Mental Health Red Nose Day – raise awareness, maybe raise some money for mental health charities, and make it OK to talk about mental health. We all have mental health, some days it’s good, some days it’s ugly. But we all have mental health, and every person in your workplace needs to hear that message.

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2 Comments

  • Richard Underhill 5th Oct '17 - 9:48am

    Theresa May’s promises on mental health are only good while she is PM and even then she needs to walk the walk. Continual monitoring and pressure are essential.
    An incoming PM would need to be a polymath, with an accent on the math. Think of John Maynard Keynes negotiating with the USA during the Atlee government.
    Why should the British electorate, most of whom are not economists, believe the blue-sky optimism of the likes of Daniel Hannon?
    Canada and Mexico can advise on past experience of dealing with the USA. America First? It always was.

  • Helen Dudden 5th Oct '17 - 6:32pm

    I just posted above, I never saw this post. Getting treatment and recognition of mental health is still a problem. Both serious depression and eating disorders are serious issues for families trying to cope.

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