How to fully utilise your Mental Health First Aiders

Since the global pandemic in 2020, mental health has been brought to the fore. The chaos caused by COVID 19 on different age groups, for various reasons, sadly led to high levels of poor mental health. Thankfully the educated among us have worked hard over the past three years to make people aware of the signs, and the coping mechanisms and more importantly to encourage those suffering to speak up.

The war in Ukraine, the cost-of-living crisis and the fears around global warming have added to the pressures of daily life. This has driven an increase in poor mental health statistics of late, but it would be wrong to say that poor mental health is just a symptom of what’s going on in wider society, and there are clear reasons why employers should take this issue on.

Poor mental health in the workplace is often attributable to specific conditions within companies and can result in decreased productivity, as individuals take periods of time away from work or, potentially, leave their roles entirely.

In fact, poor mental health is the number one reason why businesses suffer absence from their employees. According to a report by the Mental Health Foundation and the London School of Economics, mental health problems cost the UK at least £117.9billion in 2022.

One huge movement seen across the world has been the training of employees to become mental health first aiders. According to Mental Health First Aid England, the training of mental health first aiders began in Australia in 2000 and has since evolved into a global movement that has trained over 4 million people worldwide.

However, training mental health first aiders is only the start. While some might suggest these volunteers represent a band-aid over an existing wound, having a team of mental health first aiders in your business can be positively impactful if you utilise them in the best way.

The core skill set of Mental Health First Aid enables you to understand the mind and body better. You learn how the chemical changes in our bodies affect how we think, feel and behave. In turn, if we’re more aware of the people around us, we can act accordingly. This new skill and understanding can alert us when someone needs help. This goes beyond just their performance but their overall experience in your workplace.

However, the training goes beyond this. The training teaches the participants deep listening. It teaches non-judgemental responses and removes bias from conversations. It also ensures the participants understand that they are not there to give advice – something we are all guilty of when someone with a problem comes to talk to us. Mental Health First Aiders know how to be truly sympathetic and push their own personal experiences aside while considering them to better empathise. The skillset develops better colleagues, better line managers, and even better leaders.

The average cost of training someone in mental health first aid is around £300 - not exactly expensive when you consider that according to research by Deloitte, mental ill-health costs UK employers an estimated £56 billion a year. If you run a large business with over 100 employees, consider training trainers. For less than £3k, you can train as many first-aiders as you need.

If you’re reading this thinking ‘We’ve got loads of first aiders in my business’ please ask yourself ‘What exactly is their role?’ If they are just sitting there at the end of the phone waiting for stressed or burnt-out people to call them, you may be missing a trick.

The role of a Mental Health First-Aider can go beyond waiting at the end of the phone for those tricky conversations. Mental Health First-Aiders learn to openly talk about mental health as if it’s the norm, which by the way, it absolutely is. You can ensure they become champions of opening up the conversation on mental health and ensure they do this from the top. This can then create a ripple effect that spreads across your business. This is just the start… there are plenty of ways to ensure you get more bang for your buck.

• Firstly, shout about whom you have trained. There is no point spending money on training if no one knows which of their colleagues are trained. Create signage around your building –pop them next to a poster of your physical first aiders, fire-wardens, and anyone else in your business trained to protect your people.
  
• Allow leaders to learn from them. The data from MH First-Aiders is strictly confidential but - with individual anonymity protected - business leaders need to listen to the reasons why their people are unwell. Training teams properly - at all levels - is a start. Leaders need to understand when poor mental health comes directly from mistakes in the workforce and work hard to ensure those mistakes don’t continue.
  
• Allow your managers to speak to MH First-Aiders about people they are concerned about. Remember: poor performance by a good employee will most likely have an underlying reason. It could be that they no longer enjoy their job, or it could be something else entirely. Take the time to find out but bear in mind that Mental Health First-Aiders may be able to read the signs better than you.
  
• If you have enough willing Mental Health First-Aiders, create mandatory mental health check-ins. Knowing that conversations are confidential may encourage your employees to become more honest about how they are feeling. If you don’t have enough First-Aiders, ensure your company’s line managers are asking the right questions and allow them access to your First-Aiders for advice on how to go about it.
  
• Ensure your well-being teams and your First-Aiders are one and the same. As mental health first-aid is not currently mandatory training, those who sign up for it genuinely want to help people and learn a new skill. Use this to your advantage. These people’s passion to improve the well-being of the people they work with will deliver regular and improved well-being initiatives for the company as a whole.
  
• Finally, if you have projects with tight deadlines such as pitches, client briefs or anything that can be heavily stress-inducing, allocate a mental health first aider to that team. Even if they are not needed or used, the message that you understand the pressures of your people can go a long way.

According to the mental health charity Mind, one in four people are diagnosed with a common mental health issue. Clearly, not all of those start in the workplace. But if businesses do not utilise the newfound skillset of a Mental Health First-Aider, they are missing a trick.

Mental Health First-Aiders represent a genuine added value in the workplace. Businesses that truly embrace this skill set could potentially help towards saving a life. At the very least, they will certainly help the mental well-being of the people within their walls and let’s not forget, the power of creating a good working experience can make all the difference to how happy and healthy your employees feel at work and home.

Emma is Engagement & Wellbeing Partner at PHD, a Media Agency based in London. She has worked in comms for 18yrs and organisational wellbeing for the last 4. She has achieved a postgrad in psychology and neuroscience from Kings College London, sits on the strategic advisory board of NABS, a charity that supports people in the advertising industry, and won the most inspirational senior leader of the Year award at the This Can Happen Conference in 2022 before becoming an ambassador for the brand.