York Business Week – Mental Health: Facing up to the Challenge

In our Managing Mental Health workshop we cover mental health awareness, stress management, resilience, and emotional intelligence. It’s a lot to cover in one day, we know. But here at Delphis we are up to the the challenge. Are you?

We are offering you the chance to find out on 23 November 2017 as part of our commitment to York Business Week. You can sample the whole workshop, plus a dementia awareness session, for just £24.99. And we are throwing in a free lunch as well as our high-quality 60-page workbook. We’d love to see you there, and we know from the fantastic feedback we’ve had from previous workshops that you will find the day a rewarding and valuable experience. Places are limited to 25 so book securely online now. All profits will be donated to the Alzheimer’s Society.

So why should you attend? The consequences of ignoring mental health issues in the workplace make for shocking reading. A quarter of all people will suffer with a mental health problem at some point in their lives, and 1 in 9 sickness days are directly due to mental health problems or stress. This equates to 15.8 million working days lost each year (ONS, 2016). The total cost of poor mental health to UK employers is estimated at a shocking £26 billion each year, not to mention the extra stress and strain which staff absences cause other employees, and the negative impact on morale.

Clearly there are lots of good reasons for employers to look after the mental health of their staff. Aside from being the ethical thing to do, the cost of developing a mentally healthy environment for your workforce pales into insignificance compared to the huge cost of covering staff absences, recruiting new staff and losing productivity.

But here’s the thing: when you think about your workplace and your employer, how aware of mental health issues do they seem to be? How supportive would they be if you or one of your colleagues went to them with a mental health issue?

And if you are an employer, how much have done to ensure your workforce stays mentally healthy? How many of your employees might end up contributing to those alarming statistics we mentioned? And how do you think your employees feel about your mental health policies? A 2015 survey by Capita found that 67% of workers would not be comfortable disclosing a mental health issue at work. Would that be true at your workplace?

It’s tempting to avoid facing the challenging and emotive issue of mental health, but that is exactly why you have to make it a priority. If you ignore the problem it will only snowball into something much worse.

Fortunately, there is a solution: education. Imagine being able to identify the signs of poor mental health or excessive stress in yourself and others. Imagine understanding the serious long-term consequences of stress. Wouldn’t this knowledge allow you to deal with it much better?

In fact there are powerful steps you can take to help reduce sources of stress at work, ensuring each member of staff stays healthy and productive. You can learn how to create an environment that fosters emotional well-being and allows your team to flourish. You can learn the skills to support a colleague exhibiting signs of anxiety or depression. And you can learn to understand the emotional blocks many of us have when faced with mental health issues, and so overcome them.

We aren’t born with these skills. It’s true that some people seem naturally good with others, but they’ve learnt this skill through experience. This is good news, because it means we can all  learn how to help others. Delphis is a group of academics and educators who care deeply about mental health and wellbeing. We can train you and your staff in how to create a mentally healthy workplace for everyone, and ensure that your workforce understands how they can help themselves.

We know this is a challenging task. But with our expertise and guidance, we are confident it’s a challenge you can face successfully. Places are limited to 25 so book securely online now.