Shocking research by GRiD has highlighted that less than a fifth of companies are taking steps to manage employee stress and mental health issues. An audience poll taken during a HR Magazine webinar, has also revealed that 83% of HR professionals believe mental health pressures on employees and rates of mental ill health among the workforce are higher than they’ve ever been.
There needs to be more conversations around mental health in the workplace so that it becomes less of a taboo and the stigma is erased.
Have Mental Health First Aiders in the workplaceMental Health First Aid was recently debated in Parliament to make it a legal requirement thanks to a long campaign by Natasha Devon, Bauer Media and MHFA England for ‘Where’s Your Head At?’. After a two-hour debate, the majority view from MPs was in agreement that legislation should protect both our mental and physical health. It is a positive sign for mental health first aid as it is now in Parliaments agenda to take forward over the course of the year.
Mental health is a growing concern, and one in four of us are likely to experience a mental health problem each year which is likely to impact on our ability to work. With the likelihood of mental health first aid becoming a legal requirement, companies would do well to start having some staff trained in it. A mental health first aider is the mental health equivalent of physical first aid. The two-day course arms employees with the skills and confidence to recognise and support anyone dealing with mental stress. Mental health first aid provides information on how to guide those experiencing problems towards seeking appropriate professional help.
Provide your employees with MyMindPalThree out of every five employees have experienced mental health issues due to work or where work was a related factor. Managers are just as likely as non-managers to have been diagnosed with a mental health condition. Workforces need to be given the tools to become more resilient to stress and change their mindset with happiness levels.
MyMindPal is a powerful new platform that brings together some of the newest and best thinking in behaviour change to help your team get and stay happy. Best of all, it only takes five minutes a day. It has been created to build resilient teams who need to feel less stressed and have better working days. MyMindPal is a digital platform that employs cognitive interventions and mindfulness practices to positively shift the way people think and behave.
Offer Stress and Resilience Training to employees and line managers595,000 workers suffered from work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2017/2018 and 15.4 million working days were lost. In the past year, 74% of people have felt so stressed they have been overwhelmed or unable to cope.
Empower employees to deal with stress, change and mental health issues in the workplace with Stress and Resilience Training. Topic modules for managers include mental health, understanding the relationship between pressure and performance, managing and dealing with stress in the workplace, managing change, and developing resilient teams and personal resilience. Stress and Resilience training is also available for non-managers, subjects covered include mental health, mental resilience, dealing with high pressure situations, physical resilience, managing work-life balance, coping with change, mindfulness, applied relaxation and the power of positive thinking.
If you are looking to offer Mental Health First Aid, MyMindPal or Stress and Resilience Training to your workforce, please visit Your Wellness Hub on www.yourwellnesshub.co.uk.
