It’s Time We Move Beyond Just “Mental Health Awareness”
As you envision your organization’s mental health culture change goals for 2024, here are some actionable and impactful ideas for implementation.
Goal #1: Create or revise policy to be value-congruent with holistic worker health and safety
How do we cultivate culture change? We develop policies that uphold our well-being-related values. For instance, consider implementing “Mental Health Days.” Introduce a policy allowing employees to take designated mental health days without penalty, promoting a culture of self-care.
Goal #2:Develop an ongoing and stratified mental health and suicide prevention training program
What are your next steps after your basic “Mental Health First Aid” or “QPR” training? A one-off training is great to get the conversation going but unlikely to change much long-term. How can you integrate mental health skills into leadership development and psychological safety all year long? Consider the following:
- Advanced Skills for Managers constructionworkingminds.org/advancedskillstraining
- Train-the-Trainer Workplace Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Certification Courses like VitalCog coloradodepressioncenter.org/vitalcog
Training like these options helps ensure all managers recognize and respond to workers experiencing mental health challenges with compassion and empowerment rather than react out of fear.
Goal #3: Implement gap-filling peer support efforts and center your strategy on lived expertise
Acknowledge the wisdom of workers with lived experience of mental health challenges, addiction, and suicide and empower those who are willing to take leadership roles in advocacy and program design.
- Peer Allies at Work can be links in the chain of surviving and thriving bit.ly/4803Znc
- Cultivating safe and effective storytellers reduces stigma unitesurvivors.org/online-education
Goal #4: Audit available mental health resources – internal benefits as well as external opportunities
Kick the tires of your Employee Assistance Program (EAP) by doing a deeper dive into the utilization, cultural accessibility, and impact of the services. Develop a partnership with your EAP and promote the benefits in a way that boosts trustworthiness.
- Consider tele-mental health options and community resources to round out your mental health supports.
- Promote the 988 Crisis and Suicide Lifeline 988lifeline.org
Goal #5: Evaluate your well-being approaches and psychosocial hazards and adjust
Conduct a needs and strengths assessment to better understand what psychosocial hazards might be driving distress and despair at work. Evaluate the long-term outcomes of training and awareness-raising to make sure your efforts are having the intended impact.
blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2023/03/15/preventing-workplace-suicide
Additional Opportunities for 2024
Avoid the 10 common mistakes workplaces make:
- Believing that simply having an EAP means they have a “mental health program.”
- Having a “Check the Box” mentality.
- Relying on raising awareness only.
- Developing stigma reduction campaigns.
- Not “baked into” health and safety priorities.
- Do not seek first to understand.
- Relying only on outside experts rather than building internal capacity.
- Underestimating the power of peer support.
- 9. Leadership doesn’t lead.
- Ignoring the psychosocial hazards. ■
