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05 May 2021
by Brendan Street

How to destigmatise, normalise and encourage empowering conversations about mental health

We often think of our mental health as a personal matter, something to be left at home when we head to work in the morning. But this isn’t possible. Our emotional wellbeing not only affects how we feel but how we perform and interact with others, too.

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Figures from the Thriving at Work (2017) report showed that, 300,000 people with long-term mental ill-health lose their jobs each year as a result of their reluctance to discuss their mental health and needs in the workplace. As such, employers are unable to support them and they are lost from the workforce. This is equivalent to the population of Leeds very year. It is important to reduce the stigma and improve conversations regarding mental health.

Language plays a vital role in this – not only helping employees to speak about and manage their wellbeing, but giving managers the tools and confidence to provide the right support, too.

Understanding the challenge

We’re often reluctant to speak about our mental health in the workplace for fear of being viewed differently by others…viewed as weak, not coping, not up to the challenges of work.  

Ultimately, this can exacerbate mental ill-health, as a result of the additional stress and isolation of facing it alone. And if we do open up about our feelings, conversations tend to focus on an unhelpful medical language regarding mental health.

This medical dialogue strongly focuses on illness, diagnosis and conditions – with emphasis on the idea that mental health is only about mental ill-health, something that is ‘wrong with you’. People don’t see mental health as something that exists on a continuum, something that can be improved upon.

Speaking about mental health in these purely diagnostic terms fuels the idea that anyone experiencing distress is ‘unwell’ and needs to be ‘treated’. This often prevents them from seeking support – especially in the workforce, where they fear being overlooked in terms of career progression as a result.

It’s no wonder individuals feel this way though, with nine in ten people experiencing mental ill-health claiming they’ve been subject to discrimination.

One way to change perceptions, and the experience of those in distress, is to shift our language. Everyone from business leaders to junior employees must feel confident in moving their language from a medical model to one which normalises, welcomes and expects discussions around mental health.

Changing our language

Stepping away from a diagnostic model of language means replacing the idea that mental health equals mental ill-health, with the idea that all of us have mental health that needs supporting, protecting and maintaining.

For example, instead of focusing on the ‘one in four’ people currently experiencing a mental ill-health problem over the course of a year, we should discuss the ‘four in four’ of us who have mental health that is somewhere on a continuum.

At one end of this continuum is ‘maximum mental fitness’ and the other, ‘minimum mental fitness’. We’re all somewhere along it and our position changes day to day, week to week, month to month.

Managers have a responsibility to help employees identify where they are currently and the support they’ll need to move towards their preferred level of mental fitness. Managers can then signpost them towards the support on offer from the business, either to enhance mental fitness, prevent stress getting worse or treat mental ill-health.

Examples of considerations managers should keep in mind when supporting those experiencing difficulties with their emotional health include:

  • How do the words I have chosen reflect my attitude to this subject/person?
  • How will someone else hear or read this?
  • Am I communicating in an open, respectful and non-judgmental way?
  • Am I acknowledging somebody else’s right to be different?

Managers who answer these questions confidently are likely to be able to facilitate helpful and supportive conversations around mental health in the workplace.

Important conversations

For workplace conversations around mental health to become supportive, helpful and normalised they must occur naturally – instead of being forced on individuals – and use familiar and respectful language, instead of an intimidating medical vocabulary.

For example, each team meeting should have an agenda item that offers a chance to ‘check-in’ with the emotional wellbeing of each team member. Managers can take the opportunity to simply ask them ‘how are you feeling?’ or ‘is there anything we can do to support you?’.

Questions like these are free from the loaded and sometimes toxic language which traditionally accompanies conversations around mental health.

Instead, they introduce the idea that mental health conversations can be informal and expected around the workplace. They also give individuals the opportunity to speak about their feelings and experiences if they’d like, and even arrange a more formal meeting with their line manager to discuss accessing the support that is available to them.

We explore this topic further in our webinar 'More than words – why language matters in mental health'. You can also download our guide for employees, to raise awareness of the language that will help you achieve better outcomes in the workplace from conversations around emotional wellbeing.

The author is as Brendan Street, head of emotional wellbeing at Nuffield Health.

This article is provided by Nuffield Health.

In partnership with Nuffield Health

Nuffield Health are the UK's largest healthcare charity & the market leader in corporate healthcare.

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