Mental Health Awareness

May is Mental Health Awareness month and I love it that we use the word “Awareness” as a concept in this month. One of the things that many of us are just beginning to comprehend is the toll that the last three years in particular have taken on our collective mental health!

In presentations that I do as a female motivational keynote speaker, I am sometimes asked to include information on this topic… and I believe that it’s critical for us to hear.

Here’s how to understand this graphic I use in presentations. In pre-COVID times, 15% of people in the US were dealing with depression at a level where we needed help, whether that was talk-therapy, medications, or kinds of other support. 29% of us were similarly dealing with anxiety at a level where we couldn’t manage it without help. During COVID – AND THIS HAS NOT CHANGED – almost 41% of us are now dealing with clinical depression and 72% of us are dealing with clinical anxiety. Obviously, there’s some overlap in these numbers… and what this tells us is that more than 3 out of every 4 people are dealing with some significant level of mental health challenge! This has enormous impacts for those of us in positions to lead and/or manage in organizations.

It’s more likely than not that every person you manage is struggling with some aspect of their mental health! They could be experiencing anxiety, depression, PTSD, OCD, or other mental health challenges, or things associated with mental health conditions like substance abuse or burnout – which was classified by the World Health Organization as an organizational issue rather than a personal one.

What does that mean? It means that, in addition to helping a person deal with the impacts of burnout on a personal level, what also needs to be addressed is the organization that is creating/allowing the burnout in the first place! This is a massive shift in thinking and another thing with which we are all just beginning to grapple.

So then, what’s a manager (or organization!) to do?

The first thing that we all get to do is to normalize these issues. Someone dealing with these kinds of challenges isn’t alone, weird, an anomaly, or broken. And there’s nothing wrong with them or in talking about it.

I’m working with an organization now on their values and we were discussing health as a potential value for?the organization… which led us into a conversation on mental health. I observed that I don’t have shame if I fall down a break my arm. I might feel like a klutz, but there’s no shame (an emotion rooted in the idea of being a bad person or fundamentally and irrevocably flawed). There should be nothing different about my talking about a mental health issue. Yet we have connected it to shame; we must break that connection. The first step is making it ok to talk about – just like a broken arm.

Next, we want to practice empathy – understanding and feeling with another person. Empathy is the antidote to shame! When we can say “I’ve been there.” Or “I am with you in this.” Or “I’m so glad you told me; this is really common and I’m here for you.” All of that helps bring these issues out of the darkness and begins to normalize it. AND, we never want to downplay someone’s issue. Saying something is common and it’s ok to talk about is not the same as saying everyone has it and it’s nothing to worry about. That they’re coming to you means they’re worried about it and it’s our job to help get them support.

So then, we want to help them find resources appropriate to supporting them. You might be all the support they need. Or they might need a trained therapist. Or psychiatrist who can prescribe medication. Or they might need help dealing with an addiction issue in addition to a mental health one. Or they might just need a mental health day. Or something else entirely. Anything and everything can be on the table.

On an organizational level, ensuring that we have access to those resources – and, in a perfect world, that they are covered in our health care packages – is critical. We also want to be letting people know about these resources, another key element of normalization. Just like we let people know about a 401(k) benefit, we want to make sure that we are letting people know how to access these services, whether they’re covered by your insurance or not.

By taking away the taboos and shame, we can help us all heal… and, ultimately, thrive.

Happy Mental Health Awareness month!