Prince William announces that from September, Heads Together and Mind will together provide a digital ‘go-to’ resource for employers to find information like PDFs, blogs, videos, podcasts, documents and brochures containing information about mental health at work. This will hopefully kick-start a workplace revolution to solve this enormous organisational issue. The initiative aims to make it easy for employers to find resources on different mental health issues in order to better support employees and offers online training for small and medium-sized businesses.
The announcement said that "over 80% of the UK's working age (16-64) population in employment and 1 in 6 British workers are affected by mental health issues. Mental ill-health is the leading cause of sickness absence in the UK with 127 million hours of work lost in 2015 due to mental health related absence – the equivalent of around 75,000 individuals losing the entire working year."
And setting out details of the initiative, it revealed that they "consist of a ‘Mental Health at Work’ website and online training that will aim to equip employees and managers with tools, training and a good understanding of mental wellbeing in order to create a healthy and supportive working environment. This website will bring together curated online resources enabling employers to access workplace mental health and online training, including specific training for Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs), for whom it is often more difficult to provide employee mental health support."
I wish you well — Jonathan Phelan
About Jonathan Phelan
Jonathan is the author of “The Art of the Mentally Healthy Conversation” which tells the story of how Jonathan learned how to manage the challenge of a mental health condition following a child bereavement. The book helps the reader discover how to have mentally healthy conversations, which are more likely to result in support, rather than stigma. It also promotes the benefits of workplaces, universities and schools nurturing a culture in which it is normal for people to talk about their mental health and to offer mutual support for wellbeing and resilience.
Jonathan has held a senior leadership position in a large financial services organisation since 2004, with a long-term career in law, law enforcement and consumer protection. When he went through the trauma of a child bereavement he gained an insight into the obstacles people face when they have mental wellbeing challenges. More importantly he learned how to overcome those obstacles by improving the way we talk about our wellbeing and resilience.
Through his talks, workshops and book Jonathan shares his personal story. Using the drama of how mental health has been portrayed in film, and his own particular take on how our brains process information, Jonathan guides the listener to discover more effective ways to talk about mental wellbeing.
Jonathan also promotes the concept of mutual support for wellbeing; based on the belief that we should all aim to make it normal for people to talk about their mental wellbeing, just as we are already willing to talk about physical wellbeing.