mental health & bereavement services

Not too dissimilarly to loss and bereavement, mental health for a long time has been (and to a point still is) very much a taboo subject.

If there is any positive to be seen from the pandemic, it is that there has been a paradigm shift in our discourse of such intricate and painful subjects through what was at least a universal loss of normality and at worse for many, traumatic. Westerleigh recognised the toll that the pandemic could place on colleagues and wanted to offer as much support to teams as possible, and so the mental health working group was formed. The group started by gaining a better understanding of what we were currently doing to support colleagues. We spoke to staff, site managers and HR to see what support was currently available.

While it was clear that there were lots of different options for support being offered, our next step was to find out how employees felt about this support. I led a survey into exploring this where we gave all colleagues in the business the opportunity to respond. In total, 25% of the business responded and I would like to share with you some of the results of the survey.

• 56% of survey participants said they would like or would be interested in having mental health first aiders at work.

• 69% of those who participated in the survey would be interested in having more mental health resources at work.

• 68% of respondents said they didn’t think Westerleigh spoke about mental health enough.

The survey completed by colleagues helped us to decide “what next” and at every point after this, we were guided by these results. We wanted to show colleagues we had listened to their feedback and provide support that was actually supportive and not a tick box exercise or plaster being applied.

After this work had been completed, we had a very clear idea of where we wanted to take the group and the work next. On the 18th of August we submitted an official proposal to the board for how we wanted Westerleigh to support mental health which was approved and is now in the process of being rolled out to the business. This included many different things but I wanted to highlight a few to share with you below.

• Quarterly mental health “bulletin” to highlight awareness campaigns, improve visibility of these campaigns and improve company culture surrounding mental health

• In house basic mental health education to all colleagues with options for additional study and self-improvement.

• Training for line managers in mental health awareness

• The introduction of mental health first aiders regionally across the business

• The introduction of a new mental health meditation and self-improvement platform: “Insight Timer”

• Reinvigorated resource packs for mental health to be available on the intranet and regularly reviewed

Why improve mental health support?

The charity Mind have said that 1 in 4 people will experience mental health problems of some kind each year. Statistically, that shows how many people within the industry may be impacted by mental health at any given time. The impact of this on businesses is huge, with the mental health foundation postulating that approximately 12.7% of all time off in the UK is due to mental ill-health.

We know what we are doing is working. At the end of November 2020 6.29% of the business on average used the Westerleigh employee assistance programme to access mental health services. In the short time we have simply been discussing mental health we are now seeing as of April 2022 14.57% of the overall business accessing the same service.

The mental health foundation have also stated that intervention and assistance by employers does cost money but will show a positive net return mainly through reduced absenteeism.

We have been open in talking about mental health, we have been clear about where colleagues can access support and even in a short time frame, they are accessing it in bigger numbers than we have ever seen before; meaning more people are now seeking support rather than left to struggle.

What can you do in your workplace?

My hope is that sharing this information will inspire you with some ideas for your own workplace. Below are the top three tips that can be easily added to a business at low or no cost. In no particular order;

1. Start talking about mental health more. Casually and practically in team meetings –make mental health a normal part of your conversations not something only HR speak about. Ask colleagues how they are and answer honestly if someone asks how you are. You don’t have to go into “full details” but answering honestly instead of “ok thanks, you?” helps to normalise mental health conversations. Asking how someone else is may just be the start of a road for them to seek help.

2. Educate yourselves in mental health awareness and how to discuss mental health. There are many paid and free courses available. To this point, consider investing in a mindfulness app such as Insight Timer, Headspace or Calm. It could be as simple as making a range of videos from YouTube or the NHS easily available to colleagues.

3. Give flexibility to those needing to access counselling sessions in their working hours.

Mental health advice to you

While creating this article, it felt remiss of me to not actually talk about mental health in relation to you. Mental health impacts every single one of us and in our roles within bereavement services, we are witness to mental ill health every day. With that in mind, I’d like to leave with you with three unsolicited pieces of advice for supporting yourself and others, both in and out of the workplace.

Tip 1 – Do the basics well

• Get enough sleep, food, water, nutrients and deep breaths in a day. Give yourself the best grounding you can to tackle whatever comes next. Consistently doing this has been proven to improve mental health.

• Put yourself first; even in a disaster such as a plane crash, the advice is to put on your own oxygen mask before helping others put on theirs. You cannot help others to the best of your ability if you are not well yourself.

Tip 2 – Let it out & give yourself some grace

• A problem shared is a problem halved; talking about our problems to those we feel safe with is a real way to reduce the impact they have on us.

• On average (according to author Oliver Burkham) we have around 4000 weeks to live. He describes that as “absurdly, terrifyingly, insultingly, short”. Do less but do it better –you don’t have time to do everything in 4000 weeks. You can’t fix everything, learn everything, be the best at everything. So be conscious of your time and do more of what sparks joy. Let it go, you only have 4000 weeks to live; we can put things down simply because they are heavy.

• Practically how can you give yourself some grace and let things go? A simple way is to check in with yourself by asking simple questions. Ask yourself how are you feeling? What can you do to help yourself feel better? Do you need something right now like food or a break? Sometimes stopping to ask these questions can resolve a lot of problems before they get bigger. We can usually improve our stamina bar by doing “one of the basics” mentioned in tip 1.

• Tip 3 – Learn to listen

• Learn how to really listen. If we are listening to someone, truly listen. It’s about hearing how someone feels and acknowledging this, not fixing the problem. Listen with the goal to just hear someone and not to reply.

• When speaking to someone we know is in a bad place (not in crisis), as a starting point if in doubt try asking the following question: “Do you need me to listen, offer advice, distract you or give you space?”

Conclusion

In conclusion, mental health support is vital. We work in an emotionally taxing environment, witnessing tragedy, grief and loss daily. We witness pain and suffering, care for the dead and the living whom they leave behind. We are doing this in a “post covid” world with an environmental and cost of living crisis. In many ways, our teams are under more pressure today than they were when covid first began and it is only natural that we will struggle underneath this immense pressure unless we do something to support mental health before it gets worse.

As we ended our board report; the biggest risk when offering colleagues mental health support options is that we do nothing at all. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this article and I hope that it has given you some ideas to take into your own workplace and a reminder to look after yourself and one another. If you would like further information or have any questions regarding the mental health working group, please do get in touch at sophie.hadley@westerleighgroup.co.uk.

Sophie Hadley (née Scott) Westerleigh Group