This week marks Mental Health Awareness Week, an annual week run by the Mental Health Foundation to get the UK thinking about, discussing and destigmatising mental health. This year’s theme is ‘movement’ and how we can all find more moments for movement.
BHT Sussex supports the week every May, and this year we are running a social media campaign talking about how mental health is at the centre of the work we do for our clients. You can follow along with the campaign by following us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
We support Mental Health Awareness Week every year as mental health is important to us as an employer and as a service provider.
As an employer, we have signed the Mental Health at Work Commitment which means we recognise the link between work, psychological safety, wellbeing, and good health. A quarter of adults have been diagnosed with a mental health illness at some point in their life, so it is vital we recognise and support the mental health of our staff and volunteers. All staff and volunteers are also offered training to increase understanding of mental health, including mental health first aid training.
By fostering a work culture at all levels where staff and volunteers feel comfortable and empowered to talk about their own challenges with mental health, it means we can offer reasonable adjustments, signposting to counselling, our confidential employee assistance programme, or our occupational health partners.
Furthermore, our employee benefits are aligned to support staff on with their physical, financial and psychological wellbeing. We operate under a psychologically informed working environment that focuses on continuously improving positive relationships, staff support, confidence and training.
Everyone’s journey towards wellbeing and mental health is ongoing and our managers play a key role in leading by example. They give our staff and volunteers a voice to feedback to improve our ability to meet and serve their needs.
If you share our values about the importance of mental health in the workplace, you can find our current job vacancies here.