{"id":1282,"date":"2017-10-10T08:04:59","date_gmt":"2017-10-10T08:04:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/?p=1282"},"modified":"2017-10-10T08:04:59","modified_gmt":"2017-10-10T08:04:59","slug":"breaking-down-barriers-in-the-workplace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/breaking-down-barriers-in-the-workplace\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking down barriers in the workplace"},"content":{"rendered":"

The theme of this year\u2019s World Mental Health Day is mental health in the workplace. A recent report by MIND<\/a> found that 32% of men attributed work as the cause for their poor mental health.<\/p>\n

Cardiff alumnus Miles Kean (BSc 1989), an Executive Director at Coutts, had work-related mental health issues for a number of years before he got professional help for an anxiety disorder. As he got better and returned to work he increasingly found people would tap him on the shoulder and ask to meet for a coffee. They wanted to know how he had coped and also speak to him about their own issues rather than initially talk to their line managers.<\/p>\n

He took on a mentor who was the LGBT representative on the bank\u2019s diversity and inclusion board. When the results from the bank\u2019s staff survey in relation to stress and wellbeing were published it was obvious that there needed to be some real focus on this area. As a result Miles picked up the mantle and took ownership of this. He developed a strategy and built a team who were then asked to come in and talk to the main board of Coutts.<\/p>\n

There was concern that people weren\u2019t approaching their line managers about issues affecting their mental health. RBS, Coutts\u2019 parent company, has excellent resources around employee assistance but they weren\u2019t being widely used and no one was really driving the mental health agenda within the business at the ground level.<\/p>\n

There was some visibility around improving physical wellbeing such as the global corporate 10,000 steps challenge but not much around mental wellbeing. Miles wanted to change that so that the two were given the same visibility and priority.<\/p>\n

In consultation with the board, Miles and his team came up with a mental wellbeing strategy for the bank. To inform the strategy they went and spoke to a number of organisations such as MIND, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), the Bankers\u2019 Workers Charity (BWC) and the Lord Mayor\u2019s campaign as well as many other financial institutions.<\/p>\n

Following the approval of the strategy Miles and his colleagues implemented a number of activities to raise awareness of mental health, reduce stigma, and make sure line managers and employees were made aware of what training and resources were available to them. This included:<\/p>\n