Jesse and Fred are now mental health first aid trained! Read on to find out more about what exactly this means for us and our staff.
Hi folks! Fred, the operations manager and Jesse, the social media and events manager (me, hello!) completed a Mental Health First Aider course on Monday and we’d like to write a short blog post of what this means for the company, our staff and well, Fred and I.
The course taught us how to help someone who is developing a mental health problem or experiencing a mental health crisis. The training helped our ability to identify, understand, and respond to signs of addictions and mental illnesses.
We were trained in the correct ways of helping somebody with a mental illness, whether this be a friend, a family member or in this case, a colleague/employee. Mental health in the workplace has been a topic that has been made much more aware in recent years, with employers recognising that mental health and physical health are very much on the same level of importance. 1 in 6 workers experience depression in the workplace and it’s often the case for some reason that person can’t receive the support they need. That person could be self-employed, can’t feel like they can speak out or don’t have a support system around them, we want to make sure that Dodo have not so much as a procedure when it comes to mental health but of a dedicated person(s) who are trained in how to deal with mental health issues.
The reason why Fred and I attended the course was to gain more knowledge of mental health and how it can affect others. Spotting the signs of somebody who may be suffering with anxiety or depression is sometimes difficult as some individuals with these conditions often hide it well. It is spotting these signs and being able to offer support to the person which is the crucial thing we learnt.
We want to offer our staff a safe place to come to if needs be, we will not judge on any of their situations and will be there to listen at all times. We’ve always taken care of our staff but now we know how to talk to employees in the absolute correct way if they’re going through a hard time.
Thanks for reading! Longest blog post ever.
