Building A Mental Health Strategy? Here's Everything You Need To Know
Inconsistency is one of the main challenge employers have in their approach to mental health. They facilitate random acts of wellness without a plan to reinforce the concept, correct the forgetting curve, and provide regular encouragement.?
Effective mental health strategies are structured to facilitate the employee experience and promote mental health. They have clearly defined key performance indicators and a built-in program evaluation strategy to measure impact.?
First Things First: Secure A Baseline
Before beginning a mental health strategy, it is necessary to obtain an evidence-based baseline. The goal is to measure the workforce’s perceptions, behaviours, and experience with psychological health and safety and mental health.?
A workplace assessment must provide employees and employers with feedback to support two-way accountability.?
I use the Workplace Psychological Safety Assessment (WPSA) to help organizations facilitate their mental fitness strategy by measuring the following:?
Obtaining an evidence-based baseline provides the employer insight into their starting point and how current programs and policies are impacting the employee experience.?
Accept Basic Human Behaviors
Employers can play a major role in supporting and facilitating programs and policies, but they must have a clear understanding and be realistic when it comes to mental health. No feat of magic nor one-and-done solution will have a long-term impact. Every employee has unique wants and challenges, and many do not trust their employer’s intentions regarding mental health.?
These facts can reduce the faulty logic that buying a mental health prevention or support program will fix mental health concerns. They can, however, facilitate prevention of or support for employees’ mental health concerns.?
A mental health strategy frames how an employer can support mental health over a 12-month period. Much like occupational health and safety rules govern employees’ physical wellbeing in the workplace, a mental health strategy protects their mental health.?
Connect The Dots
Before designing your mental health strategy, review the organization’s objectives around mental health. Complete an inventory of what mental health prevention and support programs are in place as well as leadership support.?
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Adopting Mental Health Philosophy
It is beneficial to adopt some form of mental fitness philosophy and get leadership buy-in.?Here are some examples of mental health philosophy that can be beneficial to adopt:
Leaders who understand the value of investing in mental fitness accept it as a journey with no ending. Like physical health, it requires daily attention. Mental health strategies provide employees a structure to help them be successful.?
Perhaps one of the most important points for mental health to be effective is for the employer to accept that it requires employee buy-in and participation. They must understand and accept that there are no shortcuts to mental health and that the cost of doing nothing can be prohibitive in dollars and lost opportunity.?
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How Well Do You Truly Understand Your Employee Experience?
The Workplace Psychological Safety Assessment (WPSA) is an evidence-based, confidential assessment tool designed to provide employers with an understanding of their employee's current workplace experience through a psychological safety lens.
It also provides employees with personal insights on improving their experience and mental health within the workplace context.
For more information,? click here.?
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It is important to highlight the importance of long-term mental health strategies in the workplace.