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Over the last few years The Lord Mayor’s Appeal’s This is Me initiative has been encouraging businesses to support employees to share their experiences of mental health at work. This might be an existing mental health issue, a recently diagnosed condition, something exacerbated by work or entirely unrelated. 

What we do know is that the working environment and support available at work can have a big impact on our mental wellbeing. This is Me is committed to changing attitudes around mental health and strives to create healthier and more inclusive workplaces by reducing stigma, dispelling myths, and improving employee wellbeing for good. 

One of the key strands is This is Me Storytelling. Organisations encourage their employees to open the conversation around mental health by sharing their personal experiences, be of their own challenges or of supporting a loved one. This is framed with other characteristics of the person so that mental ill-health feels like a part, rather than all, of that person. By sharing stories, myths, stereotypes, and challenges, it helps lessen the stigma and helps make it ok to speak about mental health. 

82% of organisations said their employees are more confident talking about mental health at work as a result of their This is Me campaign and 91% of organisations said This is Me had a positive impact on reducing the stigma around mental health in their workplace.

Hani Kablawi, Head of International, BNY Mellon, and the company’s Global Executive Sponsor for HEART, the diverse abilities resource group says: “It is not just the right thing to do, it is a business imperative. As part of our involvement in This is Me, our employees around the world have shared their experiences of mental health and disabilities, challenging stereotypes across regions and cultures, for the benefit of all our staff. There has been a tangible impact within the business and we encourage all businesses to make this a priority. 

“This year to recognise Mental Health Awareness Week we will be sharing blogs about this year’s theme ‘kindness’, have external speakers joining us virtually and also raising the awareness of our team of Mental Health First Aiders, a critical resource that we have invested in, and which is helping our colleagues through these very different, and in some cases, difficult times.  We will also use the week as a platform to encourage more employees to join our HEART team and increase the number of employees trained as Mental Health First Aiders in the UK.  We have trained 50 UK colleagues so far, with a plan to extend the training throughout the EMEA region this year and next.

“Above all, what I am most humbled by is the many colleagues who have shared their own stories about their mental health, and their colleagues’ reactions.  It is a brave step to share personal challenges with mental health, but the reaction is always the same; supportive, sympathetic and a listening ear. I encourage anyone facing this kind of difficulty to talk to someone, anyone.”

Here are a few videos that have been produced in the past to inspire, inform, and educate.

Stephen Scott, Partner at CMS agrees. He says: “I decided to open up about my mental health at work early in 2019 when we launched our “This is Me…” mental health campaign. I had been grieving the loss of both of my parents within 18 months of each other and I was a year into a messy divorce and I had been trying to pretend everything was okay at work (when it was not). It was a huge relief to be open about my situation.

The experience was enormously uplifting. I received a huge amount of messages of support, both from colleagues who I knew well, but even more touchingly from those who I did not know at all. It sounds like a cliché, but not only did it feel like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders, but also it really opened my eyes to how many people are affected by mental health issues.

His advice to anyone considering speaking up about their mental health is to “Do it and do it now! I wish I had done it long before I did. There is so much understanding, kindness and support out there, but if you suffer in silence you will never know what help you could receive, mentally and practically, whether it be from family, friends or work colleagues, even those who never even knew you existed before you spoke out!”