De-stigmatising Mental Health

This week I’m sharing tips and information about De-stigmatising Mental Health.  I share key points on:

• Why mental health is stigmatised
• How stigma brings shame and what that looks like
• How it will impact on your organisation
• Good news on the wider impact of investing in de-stigmatising
• Key things that you can do and examples too

When we prevent people talking openly and transparently, we also prevent those who need it from having support. 

Stigma brings shame. Listen in for information about how people respond then feel ashamed, what the impact will be on your organisation and how it can impact absenteeism, presenteeism and attrition.

Mixed anxiety and depression has been estimated to cause one fifth of days lost from work in Britain.

In May 2021, The Office for National Statistics revealed that depression rates doubled since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

The good news is that it’s not just about investing in wellbeing and culture. It’s helpful for everyone. Listen in for the explanation of the work I did in schools when my kids needed extra support that was helpful for all children, not just them. 

The same is true in an organisation, so what you get is happier, more inclusive workplaces where people feel accepted and want to come to work.

Let’s not forget that stress and mental health works on a sliding scale… you never know who might slide up that scale to a point of difficulty and who might get a ton of crap thrown at them for longer periods so they stay at the top end of that scale and hit crisis mode. 

What can we do?

I talk about the education, training and culture that can be impacted.

Language is huge and I share how you can impact this.

People need to feel safe enough to talk and that they will be heard. They don’t even need you to understand them or be able to stand in their shoes. 

I share a couple of key phrases that help you to help de-stigmatise mental health and support your people.

As well as language they hear at work, there’s also a language going on inside their own head based on their own upbringing and experiences. They might be ashamed, believe they’re weak (this has been said to me often), think no-one will understand or don’t want to show a vulnerability. 

My daughters both think they can hide their worries and concerns. Yet it shows in their behaviour. 

It takes the entire team to work together to make progress and consistently send the message that there is no stigma or shame around mental health. 

Even then, don’t be offended if someone still struggles to talk to you. It’s not you. You can still help.

As the stigma lifts and the culture changes, the sense of shared trauma and experiences are making it easier for people to talk, not just about their own struggles, but to recognise those issues in others.

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If you want to be increasing your performance so that you’re more resilient in these current times, so that you can focus easily, use tools and techniques to deal with all the current and unknown challenges then make sure that you either drop me an email to emma@emmalangton.com or head over to my contact page to book into the diary.