What we're doing this Mental Health Awareness Week

What we’re doing this Mental Health Awareness Week

This week, just like many other businesses and organisations, we are marking Mental Health Awareness Week at Speed. We are all enjoying a series of activities and information sharing sessions to support our team and promote personal wellbeing both in and out of work.

This year’s Awareness Week theme is nature. It has long been accepted that spending time with nature can reduce stress, help improve mood and make you feel more positive. Never has this been as relevant to us all, as in the last 14 months when spending time outdoors with nature has been one of the few things we could all do to keep us occupied day-to-day. Research into the mental health impacts of the pandemic, carried out by the Mental Health Foundation, has shown that going for walks outside was one of our top coping strategies during the pandemic and 45% of us reported being in green spaces has been vital for our mental health.

This week we are encouraging our team, even more than usual, to get outside and enjoy some fresh air, even if it is in between the rain showers. Whether it’s a walking meeting, coffee with a friend or exercising outdoors, we know being outside and being with nature can massively boost our mood and mental health. The whole team will be finishing up early this Friday to make sure we get a chance to do this.

As well as spending some time outdoors, and a sharing a host of useful resources and advice for our team, we have invited in (well, into a Teams meeting!) a guest speaker, Nick Elston, to chat to us all about his experience with mental health and anxiety.  Nick is a regular commentator on mental health in the news and delivers talks worldwide, so we are really excited to meet him and listen to his story.

However, for us it isn’t just about celebrating this week, to show our ongoing support to our team, we have signed up to the Mental Health at Work Commitment., which is backed by mental health charity Mind. This commitment details six standards, which draw on best practice from the Thriving at Work review, as well as other pledges and charters. We pledge to abide by, and build on, these standards:

1. Prioritise mental health in the workplace by developing and delivering a systematic programme of activity
2. Proactively ensure work design and organisational culture drive positive mental health outcomes
3. Promote an open culture around mental health
4. Increase organisational confidence and capability
5. Provide mental health tools and support
6. Increase transparency and accountability through internal and external reporting

For more information about how you can get involved in Mental Health Awareness Week visit https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/campaigns/mental-health-awareness-week.