World Mental Health Day- It’s more than one day

World Mental Health Day is observed on 10 October every year, with the aim of raising awareness of mental health issues and mobilising efforts in support of mental health. World Mental Health Day 2020 is the most important one yet – the months of lockdown and loss have had a huge impact on our mental health.

According to the research carried out by Mind more than half of adults (60%) and over two thirds of young people (68%) said their mental health got worse during lockdown. Many have developed new mental health problems as a result of the pandemic and, for some of us, existing mental health problems have gotten worse.

Whilst it is important and helpful to have a dedicated day that highlights the importance of our mental health and wellbeing, at Data Interchange, we believe in supporting our people with their mental health and wellbeing every day.

“Prioritising mental health has never been more important and at Data Interchange we recognise that. We promote a positive culture where people feel able to talk about their mental health. Since we introduced Mental Health First Aid we have had some great feedback from our employees about starting those conversations.”

Magda Grzegorzewska, HR Advisor

Our people are provided with tools and opportunities to learn about how to manage their own mental health and we actively train our line managers in spotting signs of stress and how to support mental health at work. Wellbeing support that is available to our employees include Employee Assistance Programme – confidential 24/7 helpline and Health e-Hub app – and access to Mental Health First Aiders, who proactively raise awareness of mental health issues, share top tips on improving wellbeing and signpost professional mental health help.

“With the shift to working from home, it’s been good to have mental health training as well as having official mental health first aiders within the business.

The training we received has increased mental health awareness across the business and will hopefully allow us as managers to help and support our team should any potential signs arise.”

Nathan George, Development Team Leader

One of the resources we have shared with our people is some tips on how to safe guard against stress. With many people working from home right now, it can sometimes be hard to find a balance between working life and home life. We have less opportunities for casual chats with colleagues and working into the evening, answering “just one more email” can become easy to do when you don’t have the office cleaners trying to move you on!

The infographic to the right, provided by Mental Health First Aid England, has been a great way to remind us all at Data Interchange of the some of the actions we can take to help manage stress. There are some great tips on the things we should be mindful of, like taking regular breaks, trying some new activities or hobbies and most importantly, that it is okay to ask for help and speak out.

“Managing teams remotely is a new challenge for myself and my fellow team leaders, the internal training and guidance on Mental health awareness has allowed us to better identify and support our team during these challenging times.

I am delighted as a business we understand how mental health and the wellbeing of our staff are key to success, and the introduction of events to focus on these subjects is vital in continuing to shine a light on mental health of our employees.”

Craig Perkins, Head of Service Desk & Managed Services

Data Interchange is going to mark World Mental Health Day 2020 by initiating a series of Wellbeing Lunch and Learn webinars, hosted by our Mental Health First Aiders. They will provide another space for our people to learn about mental health and wellbeing issues, spotting signs and how to find support. We feel that with the initiatives we have put in place, Data Interchange is developing a culture where we can all talk freely about our wellbeing and support one another.