Dame Carol Black, expert advisor on health and work at the Department of Health, will discuss how employers can help to reduce the stigma around mental ill-health at Employee Benefits Connect 2016.
Black (pictured) will speak at a conference session entitled 'Will employers be able to reduce the stigma of mental ill-health at work?', where she will talk through the steps employers can take to create mentally healthy workplaces. She will also outline how employers can empower their employees and what role managers can play in supporting mental wellbeing in the workplace.
Black said: “Employers need to understand the connection between mental and physical health because you cannot separate the two in terms of how they affect staff’s productivity and engagement.”
She also believes that top down engagement with mental health issues is vital to reduce the stigma surrounding it. She said: “If an organisation’s chief executive is visually concerned about mental health issues people will be encouraged to talk about them.
“It is slowly becoming more reasonable to admit you have a [mental health] problem; mental health needs to become part of the day-to-day running of businesses.”
Employee Benefits Connect 2016 will take place on 9 March at the Lancaster London. For more information and to register to attend, visit: employeebenefitsconnect.co.uk.
