See Change Workplace Programme

By Kate Morgan on Tuesday, October 10th, 2017 in News.

 

See Change has identified the workplace as a key setting for social change around attitudes to mental health problems to take place. In 2015 See Change launched its Mental Health in the Workplace pledge programme and since then has been working with Irish workplaces to create an open culture around mental health and reduce mental health stigma.

Creating workplace environments where people can be open and positive about their own and others’ mental health:

• promotes overall organisational and individual wellbeing
• reduces absenteeism
• enhances employee stress management skills
• reduces cost associated with absenteeism, employee relations issues, talent retention and acquisition
• can assist employers in developing systems to support the 1 in 4 employees who may experience mental health difficulties at a given point.

 

By signing up to the See Change workplace pledge, organisations are showing that they are committed to creating an open culture around mental health for managers and employees.

 

Details of the 6 step pledge programme

Managerial Level (Address the needs of the organisation at managerial level)

 

1. Line manager workshops: Receive “See Change Mental Health in the Workplace” workshops for line managers.

 

1. Policy overhaul and implementation: See Change has developed a template “Mental Health Policy Document”.

 

Staff-wide (Embed an open culture towards mental health across your organisation)

 

1. Mental health awareness/wellness training: Host mental health awareness training and wellness workshops for staff. Create internal communications campaigns promoting wellbeing in your newsletters, on noticeboards, in the staff canteen or on your organisation’s intranet site.

 

1. In-house mental health promotion: Nominate staff champions to promote wellness and challenge stigma and provide information for staff to access with ease.

 

Public engagement (Make it official that you are a See Change workplace)

 

1. Engage your stakeholders: Organise a stigma challenging activity in your workplace in partnership with See Change and involve local communities and stakeholders.

 

1. Become an official See Change workplace by signing the workplace pledge: This is a public statement that your organisation is aiming to tackle mental health stigma and discrimination in the workplace and creating an open culture around mental health at work for all staff.

 

The See Change workplace programme is funded by the National Office for Suicide Prevention.

See Change would like to acknowledge the wonderful work of our workshop facilitators (Barbara Brennan, Bev Webster, John McElhinney and Brian Kelly) and a special thank you to the See Change ambassadors who come along to presentations in workplaces sharing their own personal experience, helping to break the silence and stigma associated with mental health problems.

Please visit link below for details on resources and support services available for organisations:

http://www.seechange.ie/resources-and-support-services/

For further information on the workplace programme please contact Dolores Kavanagh at dolores@seechange.ie