Empowering Your Workplace: Mental Health Champion Training

Speaker 1

Hello and thank you all for joining me today to have a look at how we can support mental health in the workplace. My name is Dr Pamela Lennon, well-being consultant for Zivo Health and delighted to talk to you today on World Mental Health Day. Mental health is something that we all have and we need to look out for it.

Speaker 2

after as well, just like a physical health. Many of us will have experiences of stress from the workplace impacting our own personal lives and family lives. And some of us may also already have a pre-existing mental health condition that needs support.

And often certain acute life circumstances can happen and leave us dealing with grief or bereavement or disappointments, which is also to have those supports in place in the workplace to help you navigate through. And what we’ll talk about

Speaker 1

about today as well is the benefits for the organization.

Speaker 2

investing in mental health and for many financial reasons as well. It’s just, it’s not that it’s just a writing to do, but it’s very important in a business sense too. So we’ll kick off here and today we’re going to talk about mental health generally in the workplace.

Speaker 1

and how it can be supported organizationally.

Speaker 2

And we’ll have a look at our Mental Health Champion Training, which is our one day and half day accredited training courses that can be delivered to management, to HR, to all employees, to the CEO, to help inform and reduce stigma and create awareness around mental health as well provide the tools to be able to support people in need.

And finally, we’ll wrap up with a look at our 2021 case study where we looked at the evidence for its effectiveness in terms of knowledge and behavior change for participants. So first of all, we’ll have a look at the World Health Organization document on mental health at work.

Speaker 1

And they emphasize that work can actually protect me.

Speaker 2

mental health. It serves an important function in

Speaker 1

giving people a sense of purpose, connection and a sense of community with people at work gives people a routine so it’s very important.

Speaker 2

It’s important for the day-to-day functioning of a person to have work in their lives as well, as much as we do give out about it.

Speaker 1

However, poor working environments do impact on our mental health.

Speaker 2

certain psychosocial stressors is what they’re called or psychosocial risks that can impact their mental health if there are certain factors such as high workload, poor communication, toxic.

Speaker 1

work relationships that can all not only have an impact on our mental health but also on our physical health. And it’s also important that work can help support those with existing mental health conditions that they’re given certain realistic accommodations and a sense of, you know, lack of stigma and support for what they may be experiencing.

However, people with quite extreme mental health difficulties will of course have challenges even joining the workforce or remaining at work. So it’s important to know how we can support them. And in the workplace, the World Health Organization says that it’s important to prevent and protect and promote mental health at work.

To not only protect anyone with existing conditions but also to help prevent any risks to well-being at work as well and to promote wherever possible. So here we have the mental health continuum and it’s just to demonstrate that it’s not linear.

Sometimes some parts of the day we can be off the well scale like life is good, you’re communicative, you’re resilient, you’re happy with low levels of anxiety or concern. And we can switch between these with certain life circumstances of the well or almost days of the week. But on the other scale of one well is that with…

Speaker 2

you know, really not feeling well like suicidal thoughts or psychosis at risk

Speaker 1

harming yourself and others. Someone at this end of the scale would have difficulties maintaining employment and in real need of support as well. Somewhere in the middle is someone with emotional stress. It can be intense and disrupted day-to-day as well. It’s just to give an overall view of the full spectrum of where people can be at work and how important it is to understand

Speaker 2

that people can be at different states and help support them.

Speaker 1

So why address mental health in the first place? So particularly in Ireland, we all know that Ireland is a high prevalence rate of mental health disorders compared to the rest of Europe. And up to 25% of people will experience a mental health challenge across the lifetime. So that’s almost one quarter.

And 59% of greater concern is the fact that 59% say that work stress can negatively impact on their mental health. It’s important that we try to reduce such high figures in that regard because work doesn’t necessarily have to be impacting on our mental health.

And how can we explore psychosocial risks and try to reduce them so that work can be a more positive and pleasant place to work and reduce the impacts that there are on the organization. And a high percentage, 87% of employees believe that action from their employer can actively affect their mental health, which is important as well. And that’s from the American Psychological Association in 2021.

So some more mental health at work statistics, 49% of workers fear repercussion for being open about their mental health at work. That’s almost half of people are concerned that if they relate that they’re experiencing high level of anxiety or depression, even if it’s directly work-related, fear that they may not get promotions, that they may be judged, so there’s still that stigma there.

However, 70% of leadership think that they’re doing enough and even feel that investing in mental health is a major loss of income. And even 74% relate in the CNBC study of about 2000 employees that 74% believe that employees expect too much support in terms of mental health, which is a bit concerning as well. However, as we’ll see, it is of enormous benefit to business and the organization at home.

So the impact of poor mental health on an organization, like first of all, there’s obviously suffering and loss of life satisfaction. However, it’s also causes decreased productivity, increased absenteeism, and presenteeism at work and high rates of staff turnover, which no organization really wants, as well as contributing to burnout and exhaustion.

Absenteeism and presenteeism in themselves cost 8% of a company wage bill. And up to 51% of all cases of ill health are really into mental health issues, and it accounts for 55% of days lost due to work-related illness as well. Poor mental health costs the UK employers

Speaker 2

$45 billion per year, according to…

Speaker 1

the light and presentism and this is where employees are at work but not.

Speaker 2

really function really well and not being productive costs three times more than.

Speaker 1

And we see higher cases of presenteeism now in online working where normally people, if they weren’t well, they wouldn’t be able to go away.

Speaker 2

to the office but people are more likely to…

Speaker 1

to have presenteeism when they’re working remotely as well. So on the opposite side, some of the benefits of having a mental health and wellbeing strategy or a programme is of course increased overall satisfaction, everyone’s more productive, there’s less risk of burnout, but also absenteeism and presenteeism are decreased, which is important.

And for every one hand spent by employers and mental health interventions, they get five pounds back on average due to reduced absenteeism, presenteeism and staff turnover, that’s from Delight in 2020. An early intervention is so important, as well as a shift in organisational wide culture in terms of attitude towards mental health and seeking support is very important.

Companies are treated five times more likely to be more creative and innovative and collaborative as well. So the FTSE 100 companies with wellbeing programmes show a higher than average shareholder return and programmes also influence recruitment and retention of staff, particularly in recent times post pandemic. So how can you protect and support mental health in the workplace?

First of all, the World Health Organisation recommends mental health training for managers because they are responsible for managing teams and they’re able to recognise and respond to maybe stress-related concerns or mental health concerns through that first point of call if an employee is experiencing difficulty and it’s important for them to be able to know how to be compassionate and to use active listening skills to help support them as well and to signpost to maybe HR or to their EAP or external resources.

And mental health training is also important for all employees to increase mental health literacy and awareness and to help to culturally reduce that stigma.

And it’s also recommended to have psychosocial interventions and these are trainings in how to reduce and manage stress, how to manage anxiety and other mental health concerns and to promote physical activities as well, which we know help and support our mental health also.

So it’s important that if people are experiencing difficulties that reasonable accommodations are made or support if they’ve been on leave to gradually return to work and have that support there because it may be daunting after a period of leave as well.

Just a little bit here on the importance of management and mental health and why it’s maybe more important to train managers in mental health training and mental health champion training. They have a key role in reducing and managing stress amongst their staff and how to support their teams through difficulty. Even 70% of an employee’s motivation is influenced by the manager alone.

So the role of the manager is of critical importance to the wellbeing of an organization. Many, however, receive no training and understanding even in management training or how to manage people or how to manage stressors in the workplace.

Speaker 1

And it’s important to be able to, with the demanding nature of the role, to be able to manage your own mental health. Many don’t feel equipped to have sensitive discussions around mental health and as I said before, they’re the first point of call if someone, if an employee, if someone on their team is experiencing difficulties.

Managers who have good levels of emotional intelligence, however, provide better leadership. Those that are more self-aware can regulate their emotions and understand on stressors and understand the stressors and triggers of others as well and how best to cope and how best to support a team.

And when managers can genuinely empathize with their teams and have authentic connection and communication, they’re more effective as well. So now ways that mental health can be supported at work is first of all, starting the conversation, trying to tackle that stigma in the workplace. And this is more effective if this is endorsed by leadership.

If leadership tries to encourage more openness about mental health concerns or conversations, then someone experiencing a difficulty is more likely to seek help as well. And it’s important to sign posts to certain wellbeing supports, such as AAP or HR, or to try to do some promotional activities, whether that’s posters in the workplace or email communications.

It’s just to keep it regular and constant on people’s mind. To also actively support work-life balance to encourage people to take breaks, to take leaves, to not only just recommend it, but to embody that practice as well.

and to encourage getting outside particularly working from home, getting out to outdoors, out to your local park wherever you can to just change your shift your perspective from work as well to help refresh is very important.

So now to talk a bit about our mental health champion training it is CPD accredited or one day and half day courses and the purpose is to provide individuals with tools to recognize mental health in the workplace and how to support those in crisis to give them the tools and to provide employees aside with the necessary tools to engage in open conversations about workplace mental health you know to how to instill change in the workplace how to have those conversations how to help people open up and to make a change in the culture in the workplace is so important.

So this training and it’s training how to be a mental health champion in the organization anyone can do this training whether they’re employees, management, HR, leader, team leads and particularly if they’re important if they’re serving you again.

So the purpose of mental health champion training is to train individuals as a mental health champion in the organization whether they are an employee, a manager, a team lead, leadership, CEO, HR representatives and it helps people recognize the signs and symptoms of different mental health issues and how to support others a difference it’s between what’s good and poor mental health and what that looks like.

Speaker 1

It explores how people may experience the same stressors however may react differently or it may affect them differently and how to promote a culture of wellness across the organization to learn some communication and listening skills and the importance of authenticity and showing empathy.

It has a look at certain scenarios for example if people are experiencing anxiety and panic attacks and how you can help them in the moment. Also the importance of self-care as a mental health champion and how to seek support and how to you know use self-care strategies to help support in your role and also how to offer support and encourage professional treatment as well as coppers.

So the four topics in the one day delivery it explores first about mental health awareness, what mental health is, the different types of mental health concerns, then it moves on to the communication framework of how you can use tools to support to actively listen and then how to support someone during a crisis and different scenarios and importantly then to finish up with self-care strategies and how to signpost to professional support as well and it’s important to know as a mental health champion that your responsibility isn’t to be a counselor or psychotherapist it’s simply to provide that active listening support and to signpost to professional health as well.

So exploring further what the first part of the training includes it’s an introduction to mental health, how to recognize signs and symptoms, exploring stress, anxiety and depression some of the main mental health concerns, explore some of the mental health myths as well, how to understand our emotions as well is covered in that and that then is built on in the second session and it’s learning skills to build confidence in starting those difficult conversations at work.

Of course these skills are applicable in the home as well in people’s personal lives if they want to support family members or friends too which is important. Supporting colleagues within the boundaries of one’s own professional role which is so important how to signpost for external supports.

It covers different types of communication skills, how to develop empathic listening skills and how to challenge stigma as well, verbal and non-verbal listening skills and their role play exercises as well which help bring the skills to life which is important.

In section 3 it explores how to support people during crisis if someone’s having a panic attack or having self-harm ideation or suicidal ideation and what you can do to help de-escalate the situation.

So it explores you know the difference between distress and a crisis how to support people having panic attacks which can be quite emomatic on the personal experience in it and it’s so important to be able to know the skills to be able to comfort an individual experience in that and how to bring them back.

Speaker 1

and then how to support post-crisis and to follow up to ensure that they’re doing okay afterwards. And then the last section is about developing the skillset to manage our own mental health while supporting others, which is so important, how to prioritize self-care activities, how to manage difficult emotions and challenges when they arise, supporting others as well.

Part of that has wellbeing self-audit as well, and how to seek professional support for yourself as well.

Also as a part of this training, there are four sessions that can be run that year following the training as a bit of a refresher, and it has four different teams about communication and connection with others, stress in the workplace, and different sections where people get to chat about their own experience as a mental health champion, any challenges that they’ve experienced, to share some of their pearls of wisdom.

And it’s really about getting together and working with a facilitator psychologist about how they’re finding, applying these skills in the workplace. And it goes through a recap of all the mental health difficulties, much like first aid in the workplace where you get to refresh your skills. And intermittently throughout the year as well.

So a recap of the different mental health concerns, what can be done. There’s some nice group discussions as well about your experiencing supporting others and as well supporting yourself. It goes through a recapster of skills such as non-verbal listening. This is the solar technique and it provides skills of how to really show that active listening and empathy and support when supporting others.

Again, recapping on grounding techniques, which is very effective for those experiencing panic just to regain their sense of their spatial relations and focusing on things they can hear and see and using their senses to bring them back into their body as well.

Another techniques on how to practice in difficult situations, how to bring back that awareness and label the emotions you’re feeling and to assert whether you feel safe in that space as well.

So just on a final part here, just an overview of a case study we ran on the effectiveness of the Mental Health Champion Training Course, an inner study of 170 participants pre and post delivery of the program. We found some significant improvements on mental health knowledge as well as some behavior change capabilities as well and confidence being able to support others, which is so important.

And it was great to see that 98.32 found the course to be excellent and really it is a really good course that everyone finds so interesting and beneficial and practical as well to be able to use in their work and personal lives.

And here is some graphs showing the improvements before training and after training on mental health literacy, on confidence in being able to support others mental health and capability of being able to look after your own mental health as well, which is so important and we saw an improvement there.

Speaker 1

So who should attend this course? It’s really ideal for anyone who wants to learn more about mental health and how they can support others. It’s important that the sooner we engage in mental health treatment, the better the outcomes are for the individual.

So it’s important that mental health champions are there in the workplace to support people that may be experiencing difficulties and to help support the organization and initiatives to support mental health, whether that is to develop into progressing into having a mental health policy where you can have disclosure, a process, so if anyone’s experiencing difficulties, they know where to go, what the steps are and what the process is like.

Early intervention allows people to build the emotional skills needed to recover and acquire positive coping mechanisms for the future. So the earlier you get in there in the treatment and support of someone experiencing mental health difficulties, the better the outcome. So thank you so much for joining me today.

If you would like to know more about mental health champion training or other supports in terms of mental health, like such as a mental health policy or psychosocial risk assessment or a general wellbeing assessment in your workplace, please contact us at the details below. Thank you so much for joining.