What if we already have Mental Health First Aiders (MHFA) within our business?

Whilst you have taken the first positive step to encourage your employees to talk about their difficulties that may not be enough as it would require a skilled and experienced professional to gain your staff's trust and be able to help them to speak openly about their difficulties. In a 2019 review by Health and Safety Executive (HSE) looking into the use of MHFA within the corporate environment they reported that while it succeeds in raising awareness of mental health, they failed to find evidence for its effectiveness. This becomes more relevant when we consider the result from a recent large survey that revealed more than 71% employees have experienced mental health problems in their lives with 53% of those affected by poor mental health in their current workplace. 

Whilst MHFA and similar projects were a huge step forward to try to encourage people at work to talk freely about mental health and seek support, it does have some challenges that reduce its effectiveness. For example:

• Over 52% of employees did not want to talk to a colleague at work about their mental health
• Employees have serious concerns about confidentiality and their information not being shared by others
• Employees had serious concern about consequences of sharing personal experiences with someone at work
• Employees had concerns about the qualifications and level of experience about mental health within their organisation
• Employers also reported needing support in managing employees with mental health difficulties
• Mental Health First Aiders do not have access to supervision and support
• Mental Health first Aiders are not assessed as psychologically resilient for their role
• MFHA and similar services are not regulated by any governing bodies

Therefore, addressing the mental health of employees needs a more in-depth solution which addresses some of the above issues, and whilst there may still be a specific, more limited role for initiatives such as MHFA there is a need for regulated mental health experts who could offer an end to end solution i.e. Helping people to open up about their difficulties, through assessment, formulation of the problem and then delivering an effective and evidence based intervention to address the problem.

Most mental health support that are available within organisations rely heavily on signposting the individual to their GP or local mental health services which has its own drawbacks. Unfortunately, with mental health resources facing huge pressure which has not been helped by the pandemic the waiting times to see a professional within the NHS can range from 8 months and up to 2 years depending on the complexity of the issue. Therefore, just listening and signposting employees would not be enough or adequate and a more proactive and emphatic approach is necessary.

My tailor-made support packages would address your specific organisation's needs. Furthermore, I am happy to offer you my initial consultation for free to have a better understanding of how I could help your business and your employees.

I have been delivering training and workshops for the past 11 years to Senior Police Officers, NHS Staff, Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Charities and the Private Sector on different topics so please contact me for a Free No Obligation Consultation:

Email: andrew@mindmattersmore.com

Mobile: 07763 490049