For nearly 20 years, Westmeria Counselling Service has worked with members of our local community and Primary Care Trust to support their mental health and wellbeing. Our counselling service has been vital in assisting clients make the most of their potential, help them to cope with what life throws their way and has supported them in playing a fuller part in life and the relationships around them.
People seek counselling with us for different and varied reasons, but what we have noticed is how often these reasons connect to and impact their working life. Sometimes their mental wellbeing (linked to physical illness too), is being directly affected by issues they are facing at work; or sometimes mental health challenges faced outside of their workplace are also impacting their role at work; many believe that they cannot continue in their work role whilst struggling emotionally and many are signed off sick with stress. This is more often than not compounded by what clients perceive as lack of support and understanding from their employers.
Whether we are leaders, managers or part of a team, we can all be profoundly affected by the state of our mental wellbeing and this will undoubtedly impact business. The facts speak for themselves:
- Statistically, 1 in 4 of us will experience a mental health problem in a given year
- It is estimated that poor mental health costs UK employers around £42billion annually 1
- 89% of workers with a mental health issue report an impact on their working life 2
- Only 13% of employees would be comfortable talking about mental illness at work 3
- 95% of employees calling in sick with stress give a different reason4
“At a time when there is a national focus on productivity the inescapable conclusion is that it is massively in the interest of both employers and Government to prioritise and invest far more in improving mental health. The UK can ill-afford the productivity cost of this poor mental health.”5
Westmeria also believe that business and companies could do more to understand, support and influence their employee’s mental health and wellbeing. And although some employers have been taking positive steps to do this, it is particularly important, with the upheaval and uncertainty of the Covid-19 pandemic, to do this now. Supporting the wellbeing of a workforce can help reduce stress, anxiety and mild-moderate depression as well as being a preventative measure, which can provide good returns for the economy as a whole.
As a business organisation, it can be difficult and daunting to know where to start in supporting the wellbeing of your employees. A first step to helping businesses create a space to talk about mental health and wellbeing is to offer the Westmeria Mental Health Awareness Workshop. Encouraging your business to come together around the topic of mental health can bring teams closer together, help them work more productively whilst also finding a work-life balance that benefits both the business and the individual. Our workshop offers a great starting point for companies and businesses who are unsure where to begin with their mental health strategy.
Aims of the workshop:
- Encourage a dialogue around mental health and well-being
- Increase participant’s awareness of their current mental well-being and of those around them
- Help participants recognise the signs and symptoms of poor mental well-being – looking in particular at anxiety, depression and stress
- Consider ways that participants can support themselves and other’s mental well-being
- Consider mental-wellbeing and the workplace in the context of the on-going Covid-19 situation
Benefits for offering the Westmeria Mental Health Awareness Workshop are:
For the business:
- It sends a clear message that your company cares and wants to invest in its people
- It opens a dialogue and a space to consider mental wellbeing both in & out of the workplace
- Fosters a culture of openness, embracing mental health and wellbeing proactively
- Starts to reduce the stigma attached to talking about mental health
- A more knowledgeable, empowered and capable workforce, with a knock-on effect on performance/productivity
For the employee:
- Increased understanding about their mental health and wellbeing both in and out of the workplace
- Increased understanding about work-life balance
- Clarity about their challenges and how they are already supporting themselves (& others) or might start to address them
- A clearer sense of their strengths and how to use them effectively
- Start to gain some insight into the mental well-being of others and key relationships both in & out of work
If you are interested in finding out more about the Westmeria Mental Health Awareness Workshop, please get in touch at training@westmeriacounselling.co.uk
1 Thriving At Work, Government commissioned report, Stevenson/Farmer
2 CV Library
3 Poll by charity Time to Change, 2017
4 Poll by charity Time to Change, 2017
5Thriving At Work, Government commissioned report, Stevenson/Farmer 2017
