How to Raise Awareness About Mental Health in the Workplace

As an organisation leader, you can take steps to make your work environment more accepting for everyone. Here are a few examples about how to improve your company’s response to mental health.

Create inclusive policies

Policies are the only way to enact change, so evaluate your company’s formal processes to determine what you can do to support mental health initiatives. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified the following factors that can contribute to depression at work:

• Difficult job demand and expectations
• Long working hours
• Limited autonomy and control at work
• Lack of social interaction and support
• Unclear communication from leadership
• Inadequate employee safety policies

Use these criteria to evaluate roles inside your organization and work with department leaders to find ways to alleviate stress. You might decide, for example, to reduce oversight and monitor the results to see if overall performance remains consistent.  

Model healthy behaviors

Establish boundaries for when you’ll be available and set an example for your team when it comes to work-life balance: Use your vacation time, don’t check your email or phone when you aren’t working, and work the same number of hours that you expect from your team. If you feel comfortable sharing, it can also be beneficial to talk about taking a “mental health day,” or taking time off for healthcare appointments.

Offer leadership training

Mental health is more than just an HR issue. To instate meaningful improvements company-wide, the company culture must also evolve. Managers should receive sensitivity training to help them identify signs of mental illness and intervene if the situation demands. Senior leadership and C-suite executives should also participate in campaigns to raise awareness about the company’s mental health resources and support network.

Take an intersectional approach

Even though mental health conditions are stigmatized, they’re internationally pervasive across demographic lines. Some studies estimate up to80% of the population will manage a diagnosable mental health condition at some point during their lifetime.

Despite its prevalence, mental health manifests differently for everyone and can intersect with other aspects of an individual’s identity—for example, a person’s gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age, religion, generation, and socioeconomic background can all affect their mental health. Because of these differences, it might be helpful to engage your company’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) team when you evaluate your company’s mental health policies.

Start an employee resource group (ERG)

ERGs create a sense of belonging and psychological safety that are critical to employee retention and company culture. An ERG for caregivers, allies, and all employees across the mental health spectrum can connect employees with resources. Participation in the group should be voluntary and shouldn’t pressure anyone to disclose information about their health. Address your awareness campaign to the whole company, and don’t single anyone out.

Attitudes surrounding mental health at work are changing, and it’s acceptable by today’s standards to discuss these concerns, even in the most demanding professional settings. As visibility increases and therapy becomes normalised, employers are expected to offer benefits for mental health in addition to physical health. Millennials—the largest workforce segment in 2020—are63% more likely to know how to access their company’s mental health resources and use this criterion to evaluate employers.Wellhub can help you design a new benefits package that supports employees’ mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing. With one membership, employees gain access to thousands of gym partners, wellness apps, and online therapy with certified professionals. To learn more about our monthly membership plans, visit ourwebsite today.