Charter aims to bring Mental Health Awareness within the workplace
Shropshire businesses are being encouraged to sign the Mental Health Charter to show support to mental health awareness in the workplace.
A community interest company based in Market Drayton is putting Mental Health at work in the spotlight. Businesses can sign the charter to show support for their employees.
The founder of the Mental Health Charter, Michael Lloyd says Shropshire businesses are leading the way to Mental Health Awareness: “I am so pleased and overwhelmed that Shropshire businesses are leading the way to Mental Health awareness within the workplace.
“We already have Shropshire businesses like SWG Construction Group, SJ Roberts Construction, Hi Style Salon and Fordhall Farm based in Shropshire have joined and signed the Mental Health Charter along with many more within Shropshire. We are receiving daily contact from Shropshire Businesses wanting to pledge their support to Mental Health awareness amongst their employees”
Work related stress and anxiety
Every day, a family is torn apart, a life is ruined, and a friendship abruptly ended due to the devastating effects of work-related stress and anxiety on peoples' wellbeing & happiness.
Annual statistics from the Health and Safety Executive showed that in 2019/20 stress, depression or anxiety accounted for 51% of all work-related ill health cases and 55% of all working days lost due to work-related ill health.
According to MIND, 1 in 4 people experience a mental health problem while only 1 in 6 will seek help. Pre-Pandemic, it was reported that £8bn was lost yearly due to Absenteeism, while about £26bn was lost due to Presenteeism.
Michael says:” These figures paint an appalling picture.”
Creating the Mental Health Charter
The lockdown had given Michael the time to create the charter, he explained: ”Lockdown has given me lots of spare time, with my passion for reducing the stigma around Mental Health, I designed and created a charter for employers across the UK to sign, to show their commitment on awareness of Mental Health within the workplace. Now more than ever we need to show our employees their mental health and wellbeing is of most importance to any business.
Michael added: “I have designed different memberships to allow all businesses to access the awareness and support material with Bronze, Silver and Gold offering different levels of membership.”
Signing the charterThe Mental Health Charter plan to contact all employers in the UK about signing the charter and hope they will have a good proportion of business sign up to show support for their employees.
Michael concluded: "Not only does it show great support for current employees but shows potential employees their support and commitment to their employee’s mental health and wellbeing."
