Mental Health Awareness Week | Guide for employers

What is Mental Health Awareness Week?

Mental Health Awareness Week is a campaign that individuals and companies can get involved with to help reduce stigma and increase understanding of mental health conditions and poor mental health.

Mental Health Awareness Week is an annual event that aims to raise awareness about poor mental health, promote open conversations about mental health, and reduce the stigma associated with mental health conditions.

The week-long campaign, which is organised by different organisations in different countries, typically includes various activities, events, and educational resources designed to encourage understanding and support for those affected by mental health issues.

Mental Health Awareness Week is observed in different countries, with varying dates and themes.

In the United Kingdom, the event is organised by the Mental Health Foundation and usually takes place in May.
In the United States, Mental Health Awareness Week is observed during the first full week of October and is organised by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).

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Each year, organisers may choose a specific theme to focus on, which allows for a more in-depth exploration of particular aspects of mental health. Themes can range from specific mental health issues like stress, anxiety and depression to broader areas of mental wellbeing like nature and relationships. The ultimate goal is to create a more inclusive and supportive society in which the importance of mental health and wellbeing for all individuals is recognised, even celebrated.

Reasons to celebrate Mental Health Awareness Week

Celebrating Mental Health Awareness Week is a great way to make your employees feel psychologically safe and cared for, thereby increasing team cohesion and effectiveness. It also helps bring about change at a wider societal level: if every company helps to reduce the stigma, then we start to see change at a national level.

There are several reasons why it's important to celebrate Mental Health Awareness Week at work, including:

Raising awareness: without adequate awareness of mental health issues in the workplace, it can be hard for those struggling to speak out and seek help. It’s also harder for people to spot poor mental health in others if awareness is low. Why is this a problem? Because this encourages those suffering with poor mental health to continue suffering in silence rather than to seek support.

Reducing stigma: unfortunately, all too often mental health conditions are stigmatised in our society. This means that people suffering can be afraid of the judgment of others, which again makes it less likely for them to share what they’re going through and get the help they need. Mental Health Awareness Week can help to reduce stigma by showing that mental health conditions are surprisingly common.
Improving team effectiveness: poor mental health can affect a person's ability to feel good about work and be productive. By encouraging people to share their struggles and seek support when necessary, it can help them to regain their concentration and focus as well.
Creating a psychologically safe culture: many employees want to work in a company that supports them and feels safe and open. Lots of research on psychological safety shows just how important this is to team cohesion and effectiveness. One of the key elements of psychological safety is feeling held and able to take interpersonal risks: in other words, acting out of love rather than fear. Demonstrating vulnerability and acceptance, such as by raising awareness of mental health at work, is a great way to hardwire psychological safety into your company’s culture.

UK Mental Health Awareness Week 2023: Anxiety

When is Mental Health Awareness Week?

Mental Health Awareness Week takes place from 15 to 21 May 2023 this year in the UK.

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What’s the theme of Mental Health Awareness Week?

The official theme for this year, as set by the Mental Health Foundation, is ‘anxiety‘.

Anxiety is one of the most common forms of poor mental health. Around one in ten people in the UK are diagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD), and many more struggle with anxiety symptoms and anxiousness affecting how they feel and behave. There are also other types of anxiety disorder, including panic disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and social anxiety disorder.

Anxiety, or being anxious, is a natural response to stress, affecting people in both physical and psychological ways. It can be brought about by specific events or by more abstract worries, and is usually accompanied by feelings of worry, distress and tension.

At their worst, anxiety disorders can affect a person’s ability to carry out day-to-day activities and responsibilities.

Mental Health Awareness Week ideas for employers

Whatever you do for Mental Health Awareness Week, do something! Here are a few ideas for relatively easy-to-arrange initiatives.

Arrange sharing sessions in your company: create an in-person or virtual space for employees to (optionally) come together and share stories of their experiences with poor mental health, whether it’s in a wider group or in smaller breakout rooms. We suggest giving the discussions a bit more focus by providing themed topics, whether that’s anxiety (this year’s official theme), work-life balance, imposter syndrome or stress.

Make all meetings that week into ‘mindful meetings’: start all meetings with a five-minute group meditation, using an audio recording from YouTube or Insight Timer (a free app). It’s a time for everyone to take a step back, reflect, and get into the moment before diving into another work discussion. We recommend a box breathing exercise, as this can help to manage anxiety symptoms, this year’s theme for Mental Health Awareness Week.
Randomly schedule ‘Get outside for a walk’ into people’s diaries: surprise your team with individual invites to leave their desk and go outside for a walk. (At Spill, we call this ‘Let them go walking’, after the Patagonia founder’s adage of ‘Let them go surfing’: when the waves were good, he would let the team hit the beach.) Ask people to share photos of their walks on company communications channels.
Fundraise for a mental health charity: ask the team if there’s a particular mental health charity close to their heart, or get people to vote for their favourite. Then organise charity events, such as bake sales, sponsored runs, or auctions, to support mental health organisations doing great work to reduce stigma and improve access to support.
Pay for some people to do Mental Health First Aid training: this one-off course, which usually lasts two days and can be done virtually, gives people a deeper understanding of common mental health conditions and disorders, as well as tips on how to spot the symptoms and how to hold a useful conversation with someone who might be struggling. Mental Health Awareness Week is a great time to generate interest around this.
Share useful resources with your team: these could be quotes, statistics, infographics, articles, videos or webinar recordings about relevant mental-health-related topics. As a mental health company ourselves, we’ve got a bunch of resources (many of which are written by, or reviewed by, Spill therapists) that could be worth sharing with your team.