Video tutorial: How Royal Mail and Simplyhealth have incorporated mental resilience training
“Whilst we might have been extolling the benefits of mental health externally we might not have been practicing what we were preaching,” said Pam Whelan, director of corporate at Simplyhealth, speaking at the Employee Wellbeing Congress 2018. “We realised there was a gap in our toolkit for supporting mental health,” she said.
She said the company has since invested in a number of initiatives, such as mental health training for line managers, promoting the EAP programme across the company and using mental health awareness week to test new initiatives to raise awareness such as a dedicated chillout space. “This proved to be a very popular initiative and one we are looking to make permanent,” she said.
At the Royal Mail she said the company was leading the way on supporting mental health. “It is a truly inspiring story,” she said.
She explained how Royal Mail had designed a mental health strategy across the whole business to help reduce absenteeism due to mental health, despite the company having a traditionally older, male dominated workforce traditionally resistant to mental health support. Royal Mail has created a five year mental health plan and strategy, the Because Healthy Minds Matters programme.
Whelan revealed a three-step approach for implementing mental resilience.
This video was recorded at the Employee Wellbeing Congress 2018, held in London on 5 July.
In partnership with Simplyhealth
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