Mental Health at Work Commitment Standard 3 toolkit
One of the best ways to raise awareness about mental health and challenge stigma is to encourage conversation about it. Another way is to empower individuals in an organisation to take an active role in championing the issue. Both help create a culture where people feel able to come forward if they need support. It’s clear that passionate employees and volunteers, at any level of the organisation, are often the drivers of that cultural change.
And, as an employer, fostering an environment in which these conversations can take place, and supporting grassroots enthusiasm to champion mental health issues, plays an integral role in keeping staff well.
Resources in this toolkit:
Take 10 Together: Starting the conversation
Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England is calling on everyone to ‘Take 10 Together’ and take ten minutes to start a conversation about mental health. This can be an easy way to make time in your schedule to get your staff talking and thinking about their wellbeing.
This is Me
This is Me is a business-led campaign to support organisations, and their employees, to talk about mental health. It encourages people with experience of a mental health problem, whether their own or of a loved one, to share their stories. It may help encourage your employees to talk about their own concerns.
Start the conversation
One of the first, and easiest, things you can do to start improving mental health at work is simply to start a conversation. In this video, people from various industries talk about the importance of talking to someone.
Setting up a Wellness Action Plan
Wellness Action Plans are for everyone, not just someone who has a problem right now. For all of us, it’s important to stay aware of our mental health work, and a WAP can help with this. This guide shows what to consider when introducing WAPs to your organisation.
How to talk to your employer about your mental health
This guide from Nuffield Health can help employees to plan who to speak to and what to say when discussing their mental health at work. You may like to share this guide in your organisation to help staff feel confident when disclosing their concerns.
St Mungo’s Diversity Networks
Networks are a great way of connecting staff who have similar experiences and backgrounds. This is an example of networks available at St Mungo's, and may help you think about what networks you might like to introduce in your own workplace.
How to promote good mental health in your business
This short article from the Institute of Directors (IoD) talks about steps you can take to ensure a positive working environment in your business.
Talking about mental health problems and dealing with disclosure
Not all managers feel confident and comfortable talking about mental health. But it’s important that you do, and the information in this guide will help you know what to do if an employee talks to you about their mental health.
If you're not sure where to start, we've collected some case studies to give you a good introduction to many of the key areas of workplace mental health.
