This year’s World Mental Health Day has a theme of listening to people with lived experience (PWLE) and actively including them in co-designing services. The day reminds us why good mental health is so important, and how we can prioritise it in our lives, communities and workplaces.
Employers can align themselves with the campaign by moving beyond awareness campaigns towards greater listening to employees and then forming solutions based on what they say. To achieve this, employers will need to talk openly and listen to what others are experiencing.
To support the campaign, we take a look at how employers can make their workplace approach to mental health one that is far more focused on what their employees have said.
Please note: World Mental Health Day falls on October 10th which is a Saturday this year. So, if you want to take part, and be part of the conversation, you’ll probably want to time your activities the week before, or on Monday 12th.
Why listen to people with lived experience?
Because they can identify barriers that others may overlook and therefore help ensure that policies, services and programmes respond to people’s actual needs and circumstances. Mental health policies and services are stronger when they are designed, delivered and evaluated with the people who use them.
Increasingly, in more open cultures, leaders who talk about their own lived experiences are helping to normalise the conversation and acceptance of mental health conditions. While this is very helpful, it’s not going to change approaches to mental health unless these experiences are taken into consideration when shaping policies. That’s why employers also need to improve all-round listening skills.
Nothing about us without us
The World Health Organisation, in their support for World Mental Health Day, use the term ‘Nothing about us without us’. They believe that people with lived experience must be central in shaping mental health care. We like the message behind this for its simplicity and inclusivity. So, ask your people – and don’t propose anything without their involvement.
Capturing lived experience – those ‘real voices’
Here are some ways you can begin to do this in your organisation. There are no fixed approaches. What will work best will depend on things like the openness of your culture, the willingness to share experiences and particularly the ability to listen. We’ll come back to listening skills later in the article.
Here are some actions your organisation can take:
Get leadership on board: Is there a platform for your leaders to be open about their own experiences? Perhaps a conference can be filmed, a webinar or livestream to discuss their personal experiences with burnout, stress, or mental health recovery. Hearing “real voices” from leadership helps destigmatise mental health and signals that it is safe to speak up.
Don’t assume, ask: Instead of assuming what your people need, set up a focus group of staff members to share experience and therefore have the data to co-design or evaluate what lived experience feels like and the mental health support needed. Ask employees what barriers they face when seeking support and act directly on that feedback. In these delicate situations, you may find employees may be more comfortable having conversations with external people who can feedback in confidence.
Communicate and inform: This suggestion very much places openness and learning at the core of your culture, reducing the stigma around mental health. Could you run a series of interactive workshops focused on practical everyday mental health, managing overwhelm, and enabling lived experiences and what they need as a result to be shared and captured as a part of this?
Invest in line manager ‘listening and awareness’ training: Line managers can have a huge impact in terms of support and engagement with colleagues who are struggling with mental health – but only if they know how to spot the signs, start conversations and listen to what they actually need. Could you run a deep-dive training session specifically for managers? Focus on equipping them with the practical skills to spot the early signs of burnout, start supportive conversations, and handle disclosure safely.
One of the most significant impacts of good listening skills is being able to support colleagues with mental health issues. For anyone, line manager or not, who wants to be a better listener, you’ll find this article helpful ‘Why Listening Skills Make A More Supportive Workplace’.
Don’t forget your remote workers: ‘Nothing about us without us’ couldn’t be more relevant to those you don’t see – or talk to – on a regular basis. Remote workers often have no support from colleagues, less time with their line manager and the signs of stress, burnout and other mental health conditions can go unnoticed.
Promote your existing benefits: While you could probably improve the mental health resources you have, and tailor them more towards lived experience, don’t forget to promote what is there now. So, signal where your team can access existing support – such as an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) and internal Mental Health First Aiders.
Final thoughts
The main takeaway from this year’s message is that the approaches towards mental health most likely to meet the needs of your people are the ones they’ve been involved with. Just as you wouldn’t take a service or product to market without doing customer research, you shouldn’t assume your current mental health provision is meeting your employees’ needs.
For more information
A number of mental health charities are getting behind this year’s World Mental Health Day – and some of these have additional guidance for employers and downloads to publicise the campaign in the workplace. Find out more here:
Mental Health Foundation
https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/our-work/campaigns/world-mental-health-day
Mental Health UK
https://mentalhealth-uk.org/get-involved/mental-health-awareness-days/world-mental-health-day/
MIND
https://www.mind.org.uk/get-involved/world-mental-health-day/
