Mental health toolkit launched for Yorkshire SMEs 

Written by Humber and East Yorkshire Mind and commissioned by Calderdale College from ESF Skills Support for the Workforce funds.

The toolkit is the Growths Hubs response to the Stevenson and Farmer report for Government - Thriving at Work, and the York North Yorkshire and East Riding Enterprise Partnership (YNYER LEP) ESF open call ‘Thriving at Work’, which trains line managers to better manage staff around mental health (as well as supporting people who have a disability and neurodiversity to thrive in the workplace).

The UK is facing a mental health challenge in the workplace, most importantly the devastating human cost, but also the impact for society, the economy and the government.  Society needs to be more aware of their own mental health and have the perception and skills to understand that of others, ‘mental health is everyone’s business!’ 

Positive mental health is important for everyone. It is an essential part of our overall health and wellbeing and adds to our level of resilience with the stresses of work and daily life.  The York, North Yorkshire and East Riding area is a diverse community with businesses across urban, coastal and large rural areas.  Here we specifically note the importance of wellbeing in the farming community with reports of levels of depression in the industry thought to be increasing and suicide rates among the highest in any occupational group.

This concise, practical Mental Health toolkit will guide SMEs, micro businesses and the self-employed, within the YNYER LEP community, to encourage a positive wellbeing culture, identify potential mental health problems and know what to do and where to go for advice. 

Prioritising and investing time in mental health in the workplace and promoting best practise will hopefully;

prevent unnecessary sickness absence through advising on preventative measures and good practise
help employers without dedicated HR departments gain answers to some basic questions and be signposted to extra support
help employees successfully return to work a quickly as possible.

Employer action on mental health will drive the focus of the topic and future improvement.  The toolkit allows a significant opportunity for low cost scalable interventions in workplaces and create self-sustaining and measurable change processes.

The toolkit, is available to all businesses, whether they are in a rural or coastal community or town centre, no matter of industry.  Taking steps to look after wellbeing can help individuals deal with pressure and reduce the impact of stress.  Embracing the toolkit will generate a positive culture towards mental health in the work place and across the region.