Did you know that according to the Office of National Statistics, approximately 1 in 4 people in the UK will experience a mental illness each year? In 2016, 15.8 million UK work days were lost due to mental illness.
But, what can we do about it? Whilst it’s not a legal requirement, as of 2018, organisations should be considering covering Mental Health First Aid training in addition to First Aid at Work training. At Woodhart, we take our teams’ mental health very seriously so we needed to ensure that:
- Our health and safety risk assessments considered mental health risks as well as physical
- We managed and mitigated the risks of harm in the workplace and found ways to support team members with mental health
- We treat mental health just as we would physical health
In order for this to happen, we took part in the Workplace Mental Health First Aid Training Guide run by St John Ambulance, and now we have three trained responders, James Field, Jade Sheffield and James Cunningham. Our three members will now be able to:
- Spot the signs and symptoms of common mental health issues
- Provide non-judgemental support and reassurance for the rest of the team
- Guide a team member to seek professional support elsewhere
If you’re part of the Woodhart team and are reading this and feel like you need support or know someone that does, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with one of our responders:
James Field – james.field@woodhartgroup.co.uk
Jade Sheffield – jade.sheffield@woodhartgroup.co.uk
James Cunningham- james.cunningham@woodhartgroup.co.uk
