Hosted by the Mental Health Foundation, Mental Health Awareness Week is taking place from 13-19 May 2019.
https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/campaigns/mental-health-awareness-week
Mental health problems are all too common in the workplace and it is the leading cause of sickness absence. Over a staggering 70 million work days are lost each year due to mental health problems in the UK, costing employers approximately £2.4 billion per year.
In recognition of the importance of mental health in the workplace and amongst our teams we place great store on developing people’s awareness of mental health, how to recognise potential symptoms and to be an empathetic listener and person to talk to.
Some members of our senior management team, including Sally Taylor, Retail Operations Director and Jacquie Davies, QUENSH Manager, have recently completed the 2 day Mental Health First Aider course which has given them a tremendous insight into the challenges and wide ranging nature of mental health issues along with the ability to spot triggers and signs of mental health issues.
Their enhanced knowledge enables them to help someone recover their health by guiding them to further support – whether that’s self-help resources, through their employer, the NHS or a mixture.
To further reinforce this we are commencing a further online mental health awareness training course for over 50 other directors, middle management and site based teams, including site managers, site supervisors and operatives
The course will lead to the achievement of a recognised Level 2 qualification and increase understanding of symptoms and management of stress, anxiety and phobias and will also provide and insight into mental health legislation.
Some of the other elements include understanding dementia, schizophrenia, eating disorders, OCD, depression to name but a few.
Suzie Roberts of Equals Training commented:
‘Today, 1 in 4 of us are experiencing mental health issues . Equals Training are supporting the workplace mental health awareness agenda. Our online qualification promotes understanding of the symptoms or stress, anxiety, depression and phobias. Contributing to the aim of progressive employers to manage mental health issues and promote a culture that cares.’
Alistair Clayton, Commercial Director also commented:
‘Aston Services Group prides itself on our people centric approach, our caring and empathetic nature and as such it is incumbent upon the organisation to recognise issues which may have a detrimental effect on the health and well-being of our people.
Therefore it is imperative that we equip, wherever possible, our teams with the skills and knowledge to have an awareness and understanding of one of the key issues of the modern workplace.
We will continue to develop this vital understanding as a progressive, people focused services group as we continue to support and underpin the significant growth of Aston Services Group.’