World Mental Health Day: Time for employers to make positive mental health a top priority, experts say

On World Mental Health Day, the employee benefits specialist Secondsight and mental health charity Minding Your Business are calling on employers across the UK to help remove the stigma surrounding mental health issues by educating their staff and encouraging discussion – making mental health a top priority.

The organisations’ approach ties in with this year’s theme of ‘Psychological and Mental Health First Aid For All’. Together, they have recently launched a series of Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) courses tailored to HR and wellbeing teams across organisations.

Jane Cattermole, General Manager at Minding Your Business, said: “Employers and HR should think about what they can do to better manage the mental health of their employees. We are urging business leaders to support MHFA England’s campaign to ‘take 10 together’ and encourage staff to take 10 minutes out of their day to talk to someone or prioritise their own mental wellbeing.”

Morag Livingston, group risk and healthcare manager at Secondsight, added: “Our two-day MHFA course is designed to provide attendees with comprehensive knowledge of learning to recognise the signs and symptoms of mental ill health. It is not intended to train people to become therapists, but to provide them with the knowledge to identify the first signs and symptoms of a range of mental health problems, and then provide them with the confidence to intervene when a problem is observed.

“Evidence for MHFA shows that those who attend the course have the understanding and confidence to provide support. The course also has a knock-on benefit by encouraging attendees to stay mentally healthy themselves.

“Mental health in the workplace is firmly on the agenda. But given the mounting evidence that employers are still not addressing, in general, the issues adequately enough and that this lack of attention can affect performance and profit margins, we’re keen to see it at the top of the agenda.”

A copy of the MHFA England toolkit can be downloaded from the Minding Your Business website at second-sight.com/wellbeing-in-the-workplace/.

The next two-day Secondsight/Minding Your Business MHFA course is on 11 and 20 October, and there will be a further course held on 16 and 24 February 2017. For further details, please contact mhfa@second-sight.com.