World Mental Health Day

Many organisations are starting to consider how they can support World Mental Health Day on October 10^th, within their workplaces.  Whilst managing mental health should be an integral part of working life every day of the year, this occasion does provide a great opportunity to re-communicate and build on existing activity around mental health activities.

The theme, set by the World Health Organisation, is Suicide Prevention; Over 110 people take their lives each week in the UK and it is the leading cause of death of men under the age of 45.  At Mental Health at Work we think that suicide prevention starts with a conversation; but we also know that it isn’t easy to ask colleagues about mental health within the workplace.

World Mental Health Day can be an opportunity to encourage open conversation and raise awareness of the signposting and support available both within and external to organisations.

This can include your Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), private healthcare, Samaritans and local Mind branch.  This can be a focus for an event in its own right or part of a broader programme involving speakers and employees focussing on the elements of mental health support that have been important for them.

If you have an Employee Interest Group or a network of Mental Health Allies, who have a role as expert listeners and signposters, then this is an ideal opportunity to ask them to lead events around themes that have arisen during recent months.  This could be around people who have expressed an interest in sharing their personal stories, ‘masterclass’ style events on a particular aspect of workplace mental health, guidance on how individuals can manage their own mental health and even visual installations to represent how mental health impacts your workplace.