COMMENT: With mental health awareness coming to the forefront of people’s minds, we wanted to go the extra mile, writes Jill O’Grady, HR manager at Muse Developments.
When I heard that St John’s Ambulance were offering a one-day Mental Health First Aid course, myself and office managers from around the business were keen to attend, enabling us to install a mental health champion in each of our regional offices.
The course taught us how to spot signs and symptoms of common mental health issues, provide non-judgmental support, reassurance and guide a person to seek the professional assistance they may need to recover.
Coupled with our employee assistance programme, which gives colleagues access to both telephone and face-to-face counselling, this increased awareness of the early signs of a mental health issue, is enabling our champions to help people access the support they may need in as timely a manner as possible.
At Muse we believe our people are our greatest asset. Without exception, they are diligent and hardworking, so we make sure that we offer the best possible working environment they could hope for.
Mental health: It’s time to talk, and to listen
This includes their mental health. Alongside our mental health champions in every regional office, we are also now trialling a number of “Lunch & Learn” sessions at our Salford Quays office.
At these sessions a professional life coach provides an informative one-hour tutorial, packed full of facts and tools to support our wellbeing programme and improve the minds of our people.
Building resilience was the first topic covered and focused on how we can be more mentally resilient, by changing the way we think and looking after our general wellbeing.
I firmly believe in a holistic approach to achieving this. This isn’t just a tick box exercise at Muse. Without our people, we would not be the successful business we are today.
