David Dunwell
Paul Bradley
HERE’S WHY IT’S GOOD TO TALK
Having open and honest conversations is key to addressing mental health wellbeing in the workplace, a panel of experts and business leaders told conference delegates.
Working to create the right culture, opening multiple lines of communication and being pro-active were also highlighted as important factors when it comes to developing and delivering a strategy to help and support.
David Dunwell is chief executive of Lancashire Mind. He said: “Listening is at the absolute heart of having a good culture. Listening, reflecting and then taking action off the back of that.”
He spoke of Lancashire’s rising suicide rate and the increase in poor mental health and added: “Every single person has a responsibility to try and do something about that within their own workplaces.
“There’s so much you can do. It is incredibly complex but it all starts with the culture. It all starts with a conversation and with being open and thinking, ‘what can I do?’
“We want people to be happy in work, they will then give more, they will then be more productive and more innovative. There might be a cost to get you there, but there will be a return on that which is important from a business sense.
“There’s no one size fits all, it is about having that continuous range of options that means people have somewhere to go to.”
Paul Bradley is associate director of Preston based recruitment firm Service Care Solutions, named employer of the year in this year’s Red Rose Awards.
He told the conference: “It is important that we as business leaders take our own ownership of this. We can all be doing more to look at what we can do that helps people.”
Paul explained that one of the aims of its work around health and wellbeing was to attract and retain the best people to deliver the company’s service.
He said: “We just want to be able to support people. We recognised that we need to have more of a strategy around this, to say ‘this needs focus’.”
That focus included bringing in a team to look at what the business was doing and working on engaging with the workforce. He said: “Asking and learning from them has really helped.
“What’s worked for us is communication, which
is key. Having those conversations and making sure we have a structure to do so. Having a range of ways to communicate with people is important.”
David Scholes, founder of Six Connections, lost his best friend to suicide. His organisation works to help people talk to and support each other and to help start honest mental health conversations.
He said: “I got up one morning six or seven years ago and said I want to create a legacy for my mate. This can’t be about something negative; it has to be about something positive and helping more people.
“We’ve created something that is authentic. It’s about how can we start that one conversation that might keep somebody on the planet.”
He added: “This is a topic we need to talk about when we are doing well rather than waiting for a point when we’re not because that becomes more difficult.”
“We can help, we can provide the resource but it is about choice. Are you going to do something about it? That’s 100 per cent down to you.”
Stephen Robinson is founder and mental wellbeing coach at It’s Mental. Like David, his organisation was created following close personal loss. He told the conference how he founded it following the suicides of his brother and brother-in-law.
He said: “When you go through that as a family you don’t want other people to go through it. I started to think how you can make a change.”
He added: “The culture in businesses is predominantly reactive. The thing is to be pro- active. It’s trying the simple things.
“Mental health first aiders are fantastic but they are a safety net, they are reactive. We’ve got to get this pro-active culture. How can managers engage with employees? That’s the challenge.”
Justine Forster, is chief executive at Advocacy Focus, based in Accrington. She explained that when she took on the role she set about looking at what could “make the workplace experience a really positive one”.
That included joining Time to Change, which was a national campaign to end the stigma and discrimination faced by people who experience mental health problems.
She said: “It was about normalising the conversation and having conversations with
Sally Leech
Starting menopause conversations. Sally Leech, the training director at Henpicked: Menopause in the Workplace, held a masterclass aimed at employers. She revealed that one in four women had considered leaving work because of menopause symptoms and one in 10 had actually left their position. Sally said: “This is a massive loss of really important talent within your organisation.”
people when they walked in the door and asking ‘are you okay?’
“If you start from a welfare position and normalise the conversation everything organically starts to fall into place and that is when your strategy takes hold.”
Justine added: “Why make things difficult for people. Let them work flexibly if that is possible withing the organisation. And let’s make sure when they walk through that door that they are okay and if they are not let’s ask them ‘why not?’”
“People need to feel safe. A huge part of the culture is trust and people knowing they are in a safe space and can come in and have these brave conversations that they might not be able to have with those that are closest to them.”
Stephen Robinson Justine Forster
David Scholes
54 HEALTH AND WELLBEING
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