Mandatory mental health first aid training in workplaces would be hugely beneficial: Mike Picken

The growing recognition of the importance of mental health in our personal lives has sparked an awareness of the role it plays in our working lives too.

The World Health Organisation estimates that one in four people experience mental health issues – and employers have a responsibility to create a supportive work environment that promotes good mental health.

Mental health first aid training is designed to give individuals the skills and knowledge to support colleagues experiencing mental distress or who are in crisis.

It teaches first aiders how to recognise signs of mental illness, provide initial support, and connect people with the resources and support they need.

While some employers argue mental health first aid training should remain optional, the fact is that providing this valuable training can make a vast difference in creating a positive and productive work environment.

By ensuring employees have access to mental health support, businesses can nurture a culture of openness and understanding in the workplace, boosting everyone’s morale, general happiness at work and job satisfaction as a result.

Mandatory mental health first aid training would go a long way in supporting employees and safeguarding against many of the problems that so often put the brakes on a business’ productivity: issues such as absenteeism, presenteeism, and high staff turnover.

Mental health first aid training would undoubtedly also be a useful tool for employers in helping reduce the impact of stress-related illnesses, burnout, and anxiety on their business, by addressing issues proactively and ideally preventing them happening at all.

Mental health first aid training gives employees vital skills that can also be invaluable outside the workplace. It not only helps individuals develop an understanding of mental health issues but also enables them to access resources to help themselves and others, and to positively shape attitudes towards mental health.

MPs in the House of Commons are currently debating a potential new law that could make it a legal requirement for all businesses in the UK to provide access to mental health first aid in the workplace. While the bill faces a long, and far from certain, journey through both houses of Parliament before it can become law, it’s clear that employees’ mental health is now being put in the spotlight as never before.

Mandatory mental health first aid training in the workplace would be a hugely beneficial outcome, both for individual people’s lives and to the economy as a whole, and would trigger a wholesale acknowledgement of the importance of mental health in the work environment – and employers’ responsibilities for their workforce.

But rather than waiting for a new law to spell out their responsibilities, many of the best employers are already taking the lead and stepping up to their responsibilities to help ensure the mental wellbeing of their own employees by providing mental health first aid training.

Mike Picken is an executive director of Leeds-based employee benefits provider Aceso Health & Group Risk