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Recognising World Mental Health Day 2023: Reflect & take action
On October 10, 2023, the world comes together to celebrate World Mental Health Day with the powerful theme, "Mental Health is a Universal Human Right." This theme, chosen by a global vote and presented by the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH), highlights the fundamental importance of mental well-being in the lives of individuals worldwide. Notably, this year marks the 75th Anniversary of the WFMH's foundation in 1948, aligning with a significant moment in the history of human rights.
Despite these global efforts and commitments, discrimination, stereotypes, and stigma surrounding mental health still persist, creating barriers to healthy relationships, social interactions, and inclusive environments in workplaces and communities.
Taking Action
The 2023 World Mental Health Day theme, "Mental Health is a Universal Human Right," calls on us to redouble our efforts to make the world a more inclusive and compassionate place. Ensuring inclusivity and support for the mental health of our employees is not only a responsible and compassionate approach but is also proven to lead to increased productivity, engagement and overall job satisfaction.
We’ve already talked about the candidate experience on the blog before which is important to consider during the recruitment process, but here are some more steps we could take to create and maintain mentally healthy and supportive workplaces in general:
Organisational Policies & Training:
- Develop clear and comprehensive policies and guidelines for your organisation that touch specifically on mental health
- Run training programmes for those in leadership or management positions on recognising signs of mental health issues, stigma & bias reduction, and creating a supportive environment.
- Encourage leadership to lead by example in discussing mental health and seeking support when needed.
Open Communication:
- Foster a culture of open and non-judgmental communication where employees feel safe discussing their mental health concerns with line managers and/or HR.
- Create secure feedback channels where employees can anonymously provide honest feedback without fear of bias. Employee engagement platforms such as OfficeVibe can be a cost efficient (and sometimes free-to-use) method of feedback gathering.
Accommodations & Flexibility:
- Provide reasonable accommodations for employees where required, such as adjusted work hours, modified job tasks, remote work options or a quiet workspace.
Mental Health Resources
- You could provide access to mental health resources, such as Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) which often include access to counselling or support services specifically to help reduce the burden of specific stresses including financial, legal and child/elder care to name a few.
Regular Check-Ins:
- Conduct regular one-on-one check-ins between managers and employees to discuss workload, stressors, and well-being.
- Encourage managers to ask about mental health during these meetings, and ensure employees are not overburdened with unmanageable workloads or unrealistic expectations.
- Encourage employees to maintain a healthy work-life balance
Evaluate and Adapt:
- Regularly assess the effectiveness of your mental health initiatives and make necessary adjustments based on feedback and outcomes through the open communication you’ve channelled as above!
Remember that every organisation is unique, so it's important to tailor your approach to the specific needs and culture of your workplace.
How you can mark the day:
Hold a Tea & Talk: Mental Health Foundation
MHF says: “Research shows that talking is good for your mental health, and that’s what Tea & Talk is all about! It’s a great way to come together to raise money and awareness”
#HelloYellow: Young Minds
YoungMinds says: “Wear yellow and donate to YoungMinds for World Mental Health Day 2023. Together we can create a brighter future for young people’s mental health”
Join the webinar: St John Ambulance
SJA says: “Join us for an engaging and enlightening one-hour free webinar at 12pm on Thursday 12th October in support of WMHD. At the heart of our discussion lies a profound belief mental health is a basic human right in the workplace”
Special mention to some of the charities with incredible resources to support both individuals and organisations:
Mind says “Awareness is just the start. Now it's time to act”
MHUK says “This World Mental Health Day we invite everyone to join us by pledging to protect, promote, and respect mental health in our communities”.
Rethink Mental Illness says “We will be joining this year’s campaign and calling for severe mental illness to be a global priority. We are looking for people to get involved in our campaign by telling us why you think severe mental illness should be a priority. Record a short clip or share a few words finishing the sentence ‘severe mental illness should be a priority because…’”
Samaritans says “Sometimes the content shared on days like this can be overwhelming or difficult to read. We're here if you need us”
Campaign Against Living Miserably
CALM says “We're on a mission to unite the UK against suicide. #UnitedAgainstSuicide”