Mental Health At Work - Building Allies and Awareness

The Power of Belonging: Supporting Mental Health at Work

Working in the healthcare industry, many of us feel a passion and a responsibility to support the needs of patients. But it can often be easy to lose ourselves in this work, forgetting the equal responsibility we hold to care for our own well-being and that of our teams. Each year, Mental Health Awareness Month provides us time to reflect on the impact our surroundings — especially our work environment — can have on both our mental and overall health.

In the wake of the pandemic, the shifting nature of our working relationships has exacerbated or brought on mental health issues for many people. While we have collectively gone through countless challenges over the past three years, we have also started to accelerate discussions surrounding mental health as companies and our broader society increasingly acknowledge its importance. However, there are still gaps to be filled to meet employees’ needs when it comes to mental health resources.

In a recent survey from the American Psychological Association, 71% of employees believe their employer is more concerned about their mental health now than in the past, but 81% said employers’ mental health support will be an important consideration?when they seek future job opportunities. This 10-point gap is an indicator that while employers are making progress in this area, mental health support will be a major talent retention factor in the coming years.

In this changing environment, we all need to adopt new methods to understand better the pressures our teams are facing and offer our support as well as reduce stigmas. At Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), we’ve developed focused and intentional programs that encourage well-being for ourselves, our families, patients, and our communities. They support team members with a range of programs that foster a greater sense of belonging at our organization.

Fostering allyship to reduce stigmas and raise awareness?

To further our support of people’s emotional well-being, we also created a novel colleague support program, the Mental Health Ally (MHA) program, which seeks to reduce stigmas around mental health issues and create a group of trained “allies” who can work to support their colleagues and guide them towards mental health resources. Thanks to the help of our employee ally volunteers, this work supplements our established global Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and our additional investments to help enable access to mental health professionals.

We launched MHA training last year, and so far we have trained over 400 colleagues globally. Response to the MHA training and program has been incredibly encouraging. As a result of this work, we have seen a double-digit increase in positive sentiments about using EAP services across our organization. People who have participated in the MHA program demonstrate increased awareness and willingness to use BMS resources that support positive mental health in the workplace, increased willingness to discuss mental health, and an overall positive shift in sentiment regarding manager and company support of mental health in the workplace.?

Leading with authenticity to build an inclusive environment

Building this inclusive environment where people can share their lived experiences begins with conversations driven by leaders. In each interaction with my team, I strive to be authentic, honest, and open — sharing my own personal journey as a working mother, a caregiver to aging parents with Alzheimer’s, and a family member of someone with a serious mental health condition ― so that my teams feel comfortable sharing theirs. With this, I want to ensure that my teams can also speak up and share ideas about how we can do things differently and better.

Our roles as managers and leaders are pivotal in shaping employee well-being. Encouraging managers to undergo training in recognizing symptoms of distress and fostering an open dialogue about mental health is important for our future. It’s also important that we drive self-care and lead by example. My self-care consists of dog walking and getting outside every day to decompress and re-center myself!

I’m incredibly proud to work at BMS as we recognize and acknowledge the importance of people's mental health journeys and prioritize this care as part of our overall health. My hope is that in the coming years, we continue to have open conversations regarding mental health and that this same level of support is seen across many industries.??