As coronavirus has an unprecedented impact on people’s lives, employees’ mental health is in the spotlight. But admitting you have a problem isn’t easy.
Admitting you have a problem at work is even harder. We associate being professional with being calm, collected and in control.
Revealing you’re struggling with your mental health feels alien. It takes courage to admit you can’t cope alone, especially if you fear it will damage your career prospects, your ability to provide for your family or even cost you your job.
Mental health problems are now the largest cause of sickness absence in the UK. Measures that companies have introduced over recent years have not turned the tide.
This Personnel Today webinar, in association with health and wellbeing provider BHSF, takes a broader approach to help understand what stops employees asking for help.
Editor Rob Moss is joined by three experts in this field. Mark Smith, principal welfare rights adviser at Auriga Services, Naomi Saragoussi, partner at the Employee Benefits Collective, and Dr Philip McCrea, chief medical officer at BHSF will explore:
- The stigma that remains around mental health
- Initiatives to improve workplace mental health
- Who in the organisation should drive it forward
- The importance of a personalised approach.
Register for this free 60-minute webinar to find out how some organisation’s mental health provision may or may not be working. You will also learn strategies to support the health and wellbeing of the workforce, and gain insight from professionals who deal with employee mental health cases on a regular basis.
About our speakers
Naomi Saragoussi has more than 35 years’ experience in her field. As partner at EBC she provides advisory to large corporations on employee benefits, including life insurance, private medical coverage, cash plans and how to run them from a funding point of view. She builds and manages relationships with employers, stakeholders, networks and strategic partnerships in order to share best practice in relation to mentally healthy workplaces.
Mark Smith has 20 years’ experience in delivering welfare rights and money advice. He has been with Auriga since 2015, having spent the previous 15 years working for a local authority in a number of welfare benefit and advice-based positions. Specialising in income maximisation predominantly through securing welfare benefit entitlement, often in a tribunal setting Mark has assisted many customers living with long-term health conditions to increase their income and improve their quality of life.
Dr Philip McCrea is an expert in occupational health with over 28 years’ experience. He has been a consultant in occupational medicine to more than 1,000 corporate clients, and has extensive experience in the management of mental health issues, specifically stress-related illness, acting as an expert on stress in 168 tribunals, more than any other OH practitioner in the UK. In his role at BHSF he is responsible for a clinical team of 60 and heads up the clinical innovation team.
This webinar was first broadcast Wednesday 1 April 2020, 2:00pm BST
4 comments
Hi, I would like to register but will be out of the office at the scheduled time. Will a recorded version be available to listen to after the 1st April please? Many thanks, Caroline.
Yes – register anyway and a recorded version will be made available to anyone who doesn’t make it.
I would like to view this to help at work in my role as HR administrator. Part of my role I look after occupational health colleagues.
I would like to register for this webinar please.