I took a workshop on mental health in the workplace

• Pay attention to your colleagues
• Notice for behavioral changes (e.g. screen off when it’s usually on, abnormal body language, seems more stressed than usual etc...)
• Create a safe, intentional, open, and honest space for conversation
• Ask them how they are really doing and listen. Listening is often the best thing you can do if you aren’t a mental health expert.
• Know the resources at your organization that provide mental health support

The workshop

Breakout session 1

Discuss, research, and find a few statistics regarding mental health. 8 minutes.

• Mental health in your country
  • 20% of adults suffer from diagnosable mental health illness in the united states (citation?)
  • Everyday 123 Americans die by suicide (citation?)
  • “According to one Centers for Disease Control report, which surveyed adults across the U.S. in late June 2020, 31% of respondents reported symptoms of anxiety or depression, 13% reported having started or increased substance use, 26% reported stress-related symptoms, and 11% reported having serious thoughts of suicide in the past 30 days. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) reports that these numbers are nearly double the rates we would have expected before the pandemic.”
  • WHO mental health atlas
• Mental health at your workplace
  • 20% have left a job due to mental health reasons (citation?)
• Mental health in your industry
  • Not enough time to find data

Breakout session 2

Two people in a room. Both ask each other the prompt. 8 minutes.

How are you? (but you can’t say fine or good)

Prompts for the group