A Mental Health Strategy Map for Your Organisation

Are you feeling overwhelmed by how to deal with the rising issues around mental health and mental illness in the workplace?

Increasing rates of stress claims; leaders unsure of how to manage employees with mental health issues; ongoing organisational change creating instability and peoples mental wellbeing being affected, are some of the common issues that we hear are causing concerns in workplaces.

So where do you start?

Mental Health Strategy

How can you create a mental health strategy and implement actions to develop a culture of positive mental health and wellbeing?

There are many ideas you can implement to develop a positive mental health culture in your organisation. The following is not an exhaustive or prescriptive list, but rather a collection of ideas that you should assess for merit in relation to your individual organisation, and action accordingly.

Governance

Assessing your organisation’s mental health literacy and defining the organisations position on mental health in the workplace. These interventions ensure that your policies, procedures and systems enhance the mental wellbeing of your employees. Through these you define the roles and responsibilities in relation to workplace mental health. These include prevention, identification of risk, relevant controls, and supports available to both leaders and all employees.

Awareness

Developing your organisation’s mental health literacy. These interventions ensure that mental health issues are recognised and responded to appropriately, balancing the individual’s needs with the organisation’s needs. General awareness of mental health issues is increasing in the community, and it is important for organisations to appropriately contribute to this within the workplace.

Skills

Building personal buoyancy, team values development and the capacity of people leaders to recognise and appropriately respond to mental health issues in the workplace. These interventions focus on professional and personal skill development to ensure that all people leaders have the skills to recognise and appropriately respond to mental health issues in your organisation. They also serve to encourage all employees to develop their individual buoyancy and proactively manage their own mental wellbeing.

Behaviour

Integrating the increased mental health literacy into the culture of your workplace so it becomes “how we do things around here”. These interventions are designed to develop a culture of peer support to ensure that if and where issues do arise, your employees are able to appropriately support each other and engage with your EAP provider or with community resources. Actions speak louder than words.

The overall goal of your organisation’s programs should be for your employees to integrate the information they learn into their daily practices. We want them to regularly use their new skills to look after their own mental health and wellbeing, and better respond to the needs of those around them.