Employee mental health: 2019 in summary

A review of the conversations about employee mental health so far in 2019, and how CiC have been participating!

Employee mental health is a topic of growing concern within the business community.

From employers to employees, people are more aware than ever, the impact work-life can have on your mental health.

2019 has seen more emphasis than ever on dedicated days and weeks which address certain aspects of mental health, and more and more the impact of work-life is being considered in the national conversation – both in the media and at the water cooler.

Here we review some of the events of 2019 and how CiC have responded:

During February, CiC participated in Time to Talk Day.

This year, we focused on bringing together the right ingredients to have a conversation about mental health.

Whether that’s tea, biscuits and some close friends, or a room full of people challenging the mental health stigma, our overall aim was to get people talking.

To mark the day, CiC hosted a ‘Bake Off’ where we actively encouraged staff to open up about difficulties at home or at work.

Removing the stigma attached to mental health is an incredibly important aspect of continuously supporting employees, and services such as Mental Health Champions and Mental Health Training for Managers are great ways to achieve this within your business.

During March we saw the return of World Sleep Day, an internationally recognised day that aims to raise awareness of sleep as a human privilege that is becoming more regularly compromised by the habits of modern life.

The day aims to raise awareness of the importance of a good night’s sleep and makes us question our own sleep pattern and the impact it has on our home and work life.

Lack of good quality sleep not only affects employee’s productivity, overall motivation and engagement, but also general stress levels. CiC have since developed a training session that addresses the epidemic of poor sleep to give employees tips for getting a healthier night’s rest.

In April, a high court judge and senior barrister warned of the serious mental health issues that arise when jurors are exposed to traumatic material.

Chris Henley QC, Chair of the Criminal Bar Association commented that “people who are whisked out of their normal lives and confronted with very traumatic stories and events receive absolutely no support at all.”

CiC highlighted these issues last year in a television interview on ITV News and is continuously working to deliver specialist support to jurors across the country.

It’s become a matter of urgency that the Government takes seriously the effect that involvement in distressing and disturbing cases has on jurors. 

From 13-19 May was Mental Health Awareness Week.

This year’s theme was, ‘body image: how we think and how we feel’ and at CiC we took a look at how we supported some of our clients during Mental Health Awareness Week.

We also delivered a mental health awareness and wellbeing webinar to a global multinational corporation to introduce the varied effects of mental health and how best to manage our wellbeing, both in and out of the workplace.

In June we attended the Employee Assistance European Forum.

We worked with other EAP providers to discuss how the industry can better meet the needs of our customers, and the impact of the changing attitude to talking about mental health is having on the services provided to customers.

In attendance was Kate Nowlan, CiC’s CEO and Kevin Vallis – CiC’s Head of Strategic Relations.

In July, Channel 4’s ‘Dispatches’ programme highlighted that on the streets of Britain a police officer is attacked every 20 minutes and that as a result 1 in 5 officers and police staff have some form of PTSD.

The show featured CiC’s client Police Care UK, a charity who provide current and former police employees and their families with support.

The programme looked into new research, which reveals the escalating problem with violence against police officers across the country, with mounting numbers of assaults.

This has only become more apparent in recent weeks following the high profile incidents involving officers in recent weeks.

CiC has continued to work with and support Police Trusts with counselling services, sometimes specifically with trauma, EMDR and CBT counselling as a result of the horrific and distressing scenes police officers witness on a regular basis.

If you are an organisation looking to improve your employee mental health, get in touch to discuss the best solution.