Video tutorial: Vanessa Sallows of Legal & General on creating a mental health first aid programme

One in three of us will have a mental health issue at some point but less than 10% of individuals would talk to their line manager about their mental health. Such figures were what prompted Legal & General to create a mental health first aid programme, according to Vanessa Sallows, benefits and governance director, group protection and insurance at Legal & General.

Talking to delegates at the REBA Employee Wellbeing Congress 2019, she said organisations needed to understand their base point and where they wanted to move it before embarking on a mental first aid programme.

Gaining leadership support was vital, she said. “It’s about getting it on the boardroom agenda. Until such time as mental health is clearly addressed and companies are measured against mental health unless you actually have a clear KPI it’s not actually going to get done,” she said.

She said Legal & General had then developed a framework and strategy based around the Thriving at Work report which sets out six mental health core standards. The company has created a whole set our resources on its not a red card website.

Recruiting mental health first aiders needs to be done from a wide range of individuals, said Sallows. “We asked individuals to volunteer and then went through a recruitment process to understand why they wanted to be mental health first aiders in the first place as it’s vital we safeguard these people well,” she said.

The company now has 170 first aiders across the organisation.

This video was recorded at the REBA Employee Wellbeing Congress 2019, held in London on 20 June.