Improving mental health awareness at work can help create a safe workplace, reduce stigma, and ensure that people seek help when they need to.
Knowing more about wellbeing, mental health, and mental health challenges, can help people to:
Manage their wellbeing and stay well where previously stress may have become unmanageable;
Know how to talk safely about mental health, if they need to discuss their own, or want to support a colleague;
Spot the signs in themselves or another colleague that their mental health may be not as good as they would wish;
Seek the right kind of support, at the right time;
Be better leaders and managers! Making mental health and wellbeing a part of your everyday concerns in leadership and management brings rewards of trust, motivation and commitment.
Create a culture where mental health is a subject people are comfortable talking about·
Some people may already have some knowledge and understanding of mental health, and others will have none. Some will be mentally well and accessing information about mental health information in relation to wellbeing, and others may be struggling or managing mental health problems and so might opt for information around support services. There is also a whole group of people in the middle who don’t consider themselves to have a mental health problem, yet nor do they feel completely mentally well, often because stress or life events are impacting on them.
Supporting people to access information and support in relation to potential external triggers can also be a useful way to engage them in mental health conversations, for example, making it part of back to work conversations after parental, bereavement or caring leave. In order to take account of this and to reach everyone in a workplace, regardless of their current mental health, raising awareness at all levels across your team is essential. This means practically, in meetings and departments, as well as through policies and plans.
Building mental health literacy means boosting employees’ knowledge and skills so they can better manage their own mental health and improve their ability to support that of others. Ensuring staff and managers have a good understanding of mental health, and the factors that affect workplace wellbeing, is essential for building a healthy, happy and high performing workplace.
You can get more information on how to do this by checking out the resources at https://wellbeing.foryoubyyou.org.uk
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