What does it mean to you to meaningfully invest in mental health at work?
There are so many ways to look at this, and organisations are increasingly recognising their responsibility to address mental health in the workplace.
For us, it means going beyond offering the occasional wellness webinar or posting about mental health awareness on social media. It involves embedding mental health awareness, education and support into an organisation's culture, team dynamics, and leadership structure - as one of our long-term valued clients Rickard Luckin puts it, embedding wellbeing “into the DNA of our firm”.
Last month, our team launched our brand new online course for senior leaders and managers: Managers introduction to mental health at work. We are so excited to add this product to our roster of services and support as many people as possible through this accessible training. All drawn from our years of live training experience, coming across the most pressing issues and questions raised in our sessions about managing mental health at work, we are beyond proud to create this set of bite-sized training modules.
To mark this product launch, we interviewed our founder and director, Tania Diggory, to dive into how mental health education has evolved over the years, debunk mental health myths, and explore why workplace mental health training is more pertinent now than ever before.
How has education around mental health at work developed over the past few years?
There’s no doubt there has been a huge increase in awareness around the importance of workplace mental health training, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic and the World Health Organisation publicly recognising burnout as an occupational phenomenon in 2019.
Since then, mental health has increasingly been on the agenda for many workplaces, with an appetite to educate staff, managers and senior leaders on how best to support their own and their teams mental health. However, while there are more companies prioritising mental health conversations than ever before, there are still a large number of organisations that need convincing on the importance of this topic.
I’ve also seen mental health education starting to dovetail with other valuable topics, such as Neurodiversity at work, Fertility in the workplace, and Menopause awareness, to name a few. While vastly different topics, mental health education certainly complements these training examples, as research shows that neurodivergent individuals, people going through struggles with fertility, and those living through menopause are more likely to experience mental health challenges.
As such, we have started to widen our pool of associates and partners who specialise in these areas of expertise to include a variety of topics that complement mental health education in our workplace programmes. We always strive to remain current in the evolution of our education, as we recognise the importance of holistic training that serves to support a mentally healthy workplace culture in the most effective way possible.
What do you think has been the most positive development in this area?
I have been delivering workplace mental health training since 2017 for professionals working in all types of industries, and boy have I seen many, many changes in people’s perspectives in this time!
Alongside my peers and associates in this industry, I have witnessed a huge increase in awareness, openness, and broader perspectives in this area. I remember when I first started, at the beginning of my training sessions I’d ask the question “what does mental health mean to you?” and for a while, the most common response would be “stress, depression, anxiety”. Now, these are all absolutely valid and correct examples of different states of mental health, yet when I’d follow up with the question “What about good mental health?” I’d often be met with a look of confusion and perplexity. These days? When I ask “what does mental health mean to you?” I receive such wide ranging responses that span from “balance” to “family” to “coping strategies” to “happiness” to “knowing what is in and out of my control” - just to name a few.
To me, this shows the biggest leap in terms of how far we’ve come as a society in our understanding of mental health. It isn’t just one thing, or one type of state - there are so many complex ways to look at mental health, as we are all complex human beings. There is no one-size-fits-all and that’s a really important place to start when exploring mental health education.
What are the most pressing gaps?
Consistency of mental health education within companies who choose to invest in this training.
We see a vast difference between organisations who invest in staff mental health training for the long term (from 6 months up to multiple years), and organisations who book one-off sessions. Now we absolutely appreciate that booking a one-off session is better than nothing at all, however we are also talking about human behaviour and shifting mindsets, approaching mental wellbeing at work with wider, more inclusive perspectives - and this takes time.
So much of the mental health discussion these days is about taking personal responsibility for your own mental health. What is missing from this picture is the responsibility our broader systems and - for the work that we do at Calmer - our workplaces have in supporting our mental health. Asking employees to "be nice" to each other simply isn't enough.
A welcoming and inclusive workplace doesn't just happen - it is created. This takes time, effort and a real commitment to the wellbeing of the people we work with and employ. It's a process rather than a one-stop-shop and it is often a really wonderful process at that. Our range of testimonials and case studies highlight this point beautifully.
What always surprises you when you’re undertaking a training?
How universal mental health really is.
I’ve delivered training to some of the most “hard-nosed” thinkers, who even themselves have admitted to having a fixed, preconceived idea about mental health before engaging in the training session, and by the end openly sharing how the content had transformed their mindset.
I remember one time in particular, I was delivering a staff training session to group of professionals at a large national company - at the start, one man was making jokes that implied stigmatised notions of mental health, and by the end of the session he came up to me and asked if he could give me a hug!
I remember it so vividly because his mindset about mental health had been so far removed from the reality that we all have mental health, and there are so many varying states of wellbeing that affect us all in different ways.
For him to go from that particular mentality, to openly exploring a range of different perspectives that break down common myths around mental health in an accessible way and hearing real life stories and case studies, was a pleasure and an honour to witness. Also, I have to say - hugely admirable for this person to have been so open with his feelings on the topic and the impact of the training session.
We all have our own biases and maps of how we see the world, and stepping out of our comfort zones to embrace new perspectives can be a truly powerful tool for personal and professional growth.
If there was one mental health myth you’d like to dispel, what would it be?
“Mental health only affects some people.”
The reality is it affects us all. A simple way to understand mental health: it is the state of your mind’s health, and it is just as important as your physical health. We all have a brain, a mind, a physical body, and emotions encased within our being. They are all interconnected and are in constant communication with one another. Our mental health contributes so much to our overall health and wellbeing, as it encompasses how we think, feel and behave.
You could also consider mental health as a sliding scale - we can all experience positive, neutral and challenging states of mental health. Nurturing good mental health through regular positive practices - such as journalling, meditation, creative activities, and physical exercise, to name a few - enables us to better cope with life’s challenges, manage our emotions, and maintain healthy relationships. Conversely, experiencing poor mental health can make it very difficult to manage in daily life, and to deal with rising stress levels. We can all fluctuate on this scale depending on the circumstances in our lives, and it is an incredibly universal, human experience.
What are the mental health issues you see as most pressing for senior leaders and managers today?
Trying to be all things to all the people you work with - this can have a challenging impact on your stress levels and mental wellbeing over time.
Stress and burnout are talked about a lot these days, however they are two incredibly different states of being - and sadly, research shows that high stress escalating into burnout is happening at a soaring rate for so many senior leaders and managers.
Stress is a natural response to a feeling of pressure, threat or danger, while burnout is a chronic state of mental, physical and emotional exhaustion, resulting from prolonged periods of excessive stress.
It’s easy to forget, but senior leaders and managers need access to mental health resources and emotional support, just as much as everyone else in their organisation – perhaps even more. Often experiencing higher levels of stress due to increased responsibility, studies have shown that senior leaders and managers are more likely to be diagnosed with a mental health condition than other employees.
Investing in mental health at work is no longer a nice-to-have; it is imperative to ensure a healthy, productive workforce and thriving business performance.
At Calmer, we believe a happy mind makes for a happy business and we hope you’ll join us on our mission to prevent burnout and nurture mental wellness - both in and outside of work.