Mental Health & Wellbeing in Your Workplace, Wherever That Might Be
17 Mar 2020
The Beatles - Help Sculpture on Wall
The pressures of work, or providing for yourself and/or your loved ones has always been there. But it seems to me that these pressures and strains around modern work are amplified today by multiple sources. We sometimes seem trapped in a race to nowhere and forget the things that really make a life important.
I have worked in various roles, for Agencies, Consultancies, in-house and (since 2018) Freelance running my own Research & Design business, Merlan Ltd..
All these roles have been varied, but the one thing they share is that they require certain techniques and coping mechanisms to maintain good mental health and wellbeing. While success in this area varies for everyone, having access to key resources to help in the process will hopefully prove useful to people.
The resources listed have a focus on supporting mental health & wellbeing in the workplace specifically compared to the large amount of resource available to support people’s day-to-day lives.
General Resources
https://www.mentalhealthatwork.org.uk/
“Whether you work with 10 people, 10,000 people or just yourself, paying attention to mental health in the workplace has never been more important. Mental Health at Work is here to help you find the information and resources you need.”
“Open Sourcing Mental Illness is a non-profit corporation dedicated to raising awareness, educating, and providing resources to support mental wellness in the tech and open source communities.”
Resources for Freelancers & The Self Employed
“Leapers supports the mental health of freelancers and the self-employed”
Conferences & MeetUp Resources
“Prompt is a means of encouraging a conversation about mental health at tech conferences and meetups.”
Charities, Public Sector & NHS Resources
https://www.mindwell-leeds.org.uk/professionals/mindwell-at-work
“MindWell is the mental health website for people in Leeds. Funded by the NHS Leeds Clinical Commissioning Group, it brings together information from the NHS, Leeds City Council and the third sector into one single ‘go to’ place.”
https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/publications/how-support-mental-health-work
“After reading this guide you should: have an idea of how to manage your own mental health at work; have an idea of how to reach out to a colleague in distress; have an idea how you can work with others to make your workplace more mentally healthy for everyone.”
https://www.mind.org.uk/workplace/
“Whether you’re an employee worried about your own or a colleague’s mental health, a company looking for a charity partner, or an HR professional interested in improving mental wellbeing in your organisation - we’re here to help.”
https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/workplace/
“We support workplaces with a range of programmes including our Wellbeing in the Workplace elearning tool and our in-house and open workplace training courses.”
Technology & Hardware Resources
“Over the last two years we’ve built up the most incredible relationships with organisations who really care about pioneering better mental health within their industries. Moodbeam’s technology has allowed them to see where they can make a real difference to the lives of those who rely on them to make the right decision.”
Hopefully the resources above can help both individuals and organisation to be better supported in regard to Mental Health & Wellbeing in the workplace.
[Note: 17/03/2020] I’ve been capturing notes for this article since helping to answer this question:
Hi all! Do any of you have resource recommendations for Ben? (I’d love to see them too!) #design #MentalHealth https://t.co/PuitutBl1T
— Jennifer Aldrich (@jma245) February 13, 2020
shared by Jennifer Aldrich on twitter. The current 🌍 global situation made me think that it would be useful to get this out of draft, share it and make any required changes later.