The 13th-19th May is Mental Health Awareness Week, but mental health is a discussion that we should be having year-round. With the new generation of Gen Z workers, it is a topic which carries more significance than ever before. In this discussion, we explore what mental health is and it’s impact as we hear from mental health expert Petra Velzeboer and Totum director Gary Jones.
Post-pandemic, most firms and organisations understand the importance of supporting employees with their mental health and wellbeing. Recent figures released by the Office for National Statistics show that mental ill health is the biggest cause of long-term sickness in our workforce, with a particular impact on young people.
With this in mind there is much more that can be done to help individuals and teams deal with the challenges and stresses of both work and personal lives. These challenges can come and go, or lie dormant and then be triggered later in life.
This is something we understand at Totum. Our director Gary Jones has been open about his own mental health challenges, talking about the impact of surviving the Hillsborough Disaster and how this has affected him throughout his life, including how his mental health spiralled after witnessing a succession of overcrowding, uncomfortable and hostile events at the 2022 Champions League final in Paris.
“I’m a big believer in asking people if they are OK and when people say ‘fine’, I ask ‘are you really fine?’
For a long time, I wasn’t ready to be honest if people asked if I was OK. When I was ready, I knew I had people to turn to. But it all started with the admission that I wasn’t OK and that my methods of dealing with trauma weren’t working and weren’t going to work,” says Gary in the podcast.
Stories like Gary’s show why it is so important to support Mental Health Awareness Week, which runs between the 13th-19th May. This year’s theme focuses on Movement for Mental Health, with the campaign aiming to remove the stigma around mental ill health and help people recognise the importance of maintaining their own mental wellbeing.
It’s also why we ensure this forms part of our learning. Mental wellbeing and performance and productivity are inextricably linked, as our HR Managers Network learned at a recent breakfast event led by author and mental health expert Petra Velzeboer, who discussed how to avoid burnout and create a high performance culture based on mental wellbeing.
We asked Velzeboer for her take on how to make the most out of Mental Health Awareness Week – and provide excellent mental health support – at work.
What is mental health?
Mental health is a huge topic for both individuals and organisations with a quarter of adults and one in ten children experiencing mental health challenges in the UK. While organisations have done a lot of work in recent years on supporting wellbeing, there is always more that can be done.
It’s important to remember that mental health is about everybody, not just people who might be struggling. It’s how we experience our world, how we feel, think and often influences how we act.
The World Health Organisation defines mental health as ‘a state of wellbeing in which the individual realises their potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully and is able to make a contribution to their community’.
A focus on mental health at work isn’t just about benefits or perks, it’s about culture, performance and team belonging.
Gen Z and how workplace wellbeing is changing
According to Business Insider, 40% of business leaders think Gen Z are not ready for the workforce, with many stating they are unprepared to hire recent graduates. But with Gen Z making up 30% of our population and 27% of our workforce by next year, businesses and firms need to wise up to the needs of future talent.
This means evolving our workplaces and focusing on:
- Clear career growth paths
- Aligning roles to personal values
- Building a sense of community at work
What does this have to do with mental health? It’s about creating environments where people can thrive. So often we focus on what to do when people are struggling. While this support is valuable and necessary, we also need to think about stopping things from escalating by focusing on prevention, enabling firms to retain talent longer term.
Make the most of Mental Health Awareness Week at work
- Get creative with this year’s theme – this could be about physical activity and taking breaks from screens but it could also be about moving your mindset, creativity as a team or digital boundaries to encourage work-life synergy
- Connect the dots to your other benefits, wellbeing strategy or perks
- Find your influencers in leadership circles and prep them beforehand to get involved, announce events and check in with their team
- Build momentum after awareness days – have a plan to embed the learning from the week!
To improve employees understanding of mental health conditions and cultivate a supportive environment for colleagues:
- Identify ways firms can support such as enhancing existing counselling services or introducing wellbeing packages tailored to employees mental health needs.
- Raise awareness by sharing personal experiences to educate others on the realities of living with mental health issues
- Shift focus from just addressing poor mental health to actively promoting good mental health
- Equip individuals with the knowledge to recognise symptoms of mental health issues early on and giving them ways to take proactive steps to seek help and support
To find out more about this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week, visit the Mental Health Foundation.
To learn more about Petra Velzeboer, visit her website.