Business Action on Public Health

AndHertfordshire Mental wellbeing support

  

Debbie LonghurstProject Manager

Business Action on Public Health

Transforming businesstransforming communities

East of England workplace pilot

Business Action on Public Health aims to explore the workplace as a setting for improving public health by asking businesses across the East of England to actively support staff health and wellbeing and consider their influence on wider public health.  This 3 year project is funded by the Department of Health and is managed by one of Prince’s charities Business in the Community (BITC). BITC are a business-led charity focused on promoting responsible business practice.  

The project is working with over 200 SME and larger organisations, who have a footprint in the East of England. The project works in partnership with the Public Health teams locally to support employers understanding of the local health inequalities and to identify suitable workplace solutions to support workplace health.

Methodology

• Employer Focus Groups• Practitioner events

• Variety of speaker platforms• Wellbeing strategy based around Public Health Responsibility Deal

• Wellbeing survey• Case study

• Third party evaluation• Employer led leadership team

• Public health consistent workplace offer• Employer led offer

• Accredited training to ‘pump prime’• Workplace health champions- build capacity

The Business CaseFor employee wellbeing

The issue of public health is an important one for business, as employee wellbeing has a clear effect on business performance.

Employers pay £9 billion a year in sick pay and associated costs, plus the indirect costs of managing business while people are off sick ( Sickness Absence Review 2011, Dame Carol Black and David Frost CBE)A recent YouGov survey for the TUC found that one in three employees are not engaged in their work. An Individual's Health has consequences far beyond themselves- touching their families and children, workplaces and wider communities (Working for a Healthier Tomorrow, Dame Carol Black)

Mental Health Awareness Week

  

• 12th to the 18th May 2014 • Theme will be Anxiety• Key supporter http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk • Refer to Hert’s workplace brochure for other Mental

wellbeing supporters –page 2 and back page• Change4Life• Mental Health Foundation

What is a mental health problem?

“It seemed to me the basic definition of mental illness, this persistent, painful inability to simply be with someone else. It might be lifelong, or it might descend like a sudden catastrophe, this blankness between ourselves and the rest of the world. The blankness might not even be obvious to others. But on our side of that severed connection, it was hell, a life lived behind glass. The only difference between mild depression and severe schizophrenia was the amount of sound and air that seeped in”. –Anon

“And of course you are mad, if by a madman we mean a mind that questions and rejects every civilized norm”. – Stephen Fry, Revenge

Mental health and work – is it an issue?

One in five workers report their job to be very or extremely stressful

One in six workers are likely to experience anxiety, depression or stress-related problems at any one time

Anxiety, stress and depression were responsible for the most UK sick days from 2001-2008

In 2007/08, an estimated 442,000 people in Britain believed they experienced work-related stress at a level that was making them ill

Self-reported work related stress, depression or anxiety accounted for an estimated 13.5m lost working days in Britain in 2007/08

Mental health and work – the costs

The overall cost of mental health problems in England stands at £105.2 billion a year, (taking into account care costs, sickness absence and unemployment)*

Stress, anxiety and depression are responsible for 70 million days sick leave every year*

In 2003 research by the Sainsbury’s Centre for Mental Health showed that staff with mental illness not being supported cost UK businesses a total of £26bn per year – equivalent to £1,035 for every employee in the UK workforce

For 2009/10 updated figures estimate that the cost to UK businesses is now £30.3 billion a year – equivalent to £1206 peremployee

*The Centre for Mental Health (2010)

Change lives

“Mental Health is everyone’s responsibility, something MHFA England strongly believes in. They create positive change in people by focusing on individuals’ capacity, ability, skills, knowledge, passion, interest, connections and on their potential to do things and make a difference for themselves. I believe that organisations such as MHFA England are a vital community resource and are leading the way in community engagement and creating networks that enable individuals, families and neighbourhoods to all play a crucial role to change people's lives for the better.”

Lord Kamlesh Patel, March 2011, MHFA Patron.

Mental Health First Aid - free support booklet

http://mhfaengland.org/files/5613/9101/5215/MHFA_Line_Managers_Resource.pdf

Hertfordshire Public health support

Free initial session Mental Health First Aid Lite

• ½ day accredited course for up to 25 delegates

•Course aims: To give you and others within your organisation a wider understanding of some of the issues associated with mental health; to help you work more effectively with people living with mental health issues; to understand the aims of the Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) course; and allow you to experience a taste of the content of the full 2 day MHFA course.

•Course outputs: Participants should be able to: Identify the discrimination surrounding mental health problems. Define mental health and some mental health problems. Relate to other people’s experience. Help support people with mental health problems. Look after their own mental health.Act as a point of contact for people who want to engage in wellbeing activities (health issues, involvement in health campaigns etc.)

• Mental Health issues are one of the top two issues for the workplace

• Over 150 employees have attended the MHFA Lite training sessions • All 5 core employers took up the training on their own sites plus an

additional 4 ‘open sessions’ were run to support employer requests• “The course seemed to touch a nerve with all the leaders in the

room. There are not many opportunities to take 3 hours out to focus on yourself, to ask yourself how am I really doing? Am I looking after my mental health? And then question how well you really support and perceive your team if/when they have mental health concerns.” – see the Bourne Leisure case study in the workplace brochure

Feedback from the Herts Pilot

• Perceived Benefits: – Opens the door very effectively to talk about these

issues and get mental wellbeing on the agenda – Seen as a fantastic offering for all line managers– RES say it is so successful they are now looking to

build it into management training and have not done anything like this on mental health before

Feedback from the Herts Pilot

BITC supporthttp://www.bitc.org.uk/our-resources/report/managing-emotional-wellbeing-online-toolkit

Free for line managershttp://www.managingemployeewellbeing.com

http://www.bitc.org.uk/east/what-we-offer/business-action-public-health

Debbie.longhurst@bitc.org.uk