Is it time to talk about mental health?

It’s quoted that mental health affects one in four of us, yet there remains some reluctance to talk about it.  Although this has improved over the past few years, it is still those affected by mental health that are expected to start the conversation.

It’s this, that initiatives such as today’s ‘Time to Talk Day’ are trying to change.  The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness of mental health and get everyone talking about it. Whether that’s over a cup of tea with friends or with colleagues at work.

As a supplier of wellbeing services, we’ve seen a bigger focus on employee wellbeing, especially the mental wellbeing of employees.  It’s moved from something that was discussed in private and, to a certain extent, hidden behind closed doors.  To a topic that is more openly discussed.  We are seeing more and more employers focus on how they can improve the wellbeing of their workforce, and this is more than just providing free fruit and running the odd yoga session in the office.  It goes deeper than that.

We’re seeing an increase in a more long-term approach, where it’s not just about offering services because it will improve productivity, but because it will improve the lives of their staff.  Although the potential of increased productivity is an added bonus.  Workshops such as managing stress, digital detox and time management are being used as a way of combating the causes of stress, which itself is a contributing factor to many mental health issues.

If you would like to make mental health a topic of conversation in your workplace there are many ways you can help promote the ideas covered in the Time to Talk campaign.  There is a wealth of resources and ideas on how you, as an employer, can implement it into your organisation. These can be downloaded.

For us, we’re going to do the very English thing of putting the kettle on, sitting down and having a chat about what is bothering us and where we need help.  It doesn’t need to be complicated, sometimes the little things can make the biggest difference.