Mental Health Awareness Week

Hosted by the Mental Health Foundation, the week of 18-24 May 2020 is Mental Health Awareness Week. This is something which feels particularly appropriate now more than ever. We reflect back on the week and think about how important it is to remember Mental Health year round

The Mental Health Foundation works to prevent mental health problems and is the home of Mental Health Awareness Week. They’re on a mission to help people understand, protect and sustain their mental health with a vision for a world with good mental health for all. Since the first Mental Health Awareness Week in 2001, the foundation has focussed on a different topic each year raising awareness of things like body image, stress and relationships. This year is no different with the chosen theme being kindness.

Right now we find ourselves living through a time that is undoubtedly having an unprecedented impact on everyone’s mental health. At Enigma we wholeheartedly support Mental Health Awareness Week and have promoted it heavily to our staff. We also believe that mental health and kindness is something we should all think about every day.

The mental health of our staff is of the utmost importance to us as a business, wherever possible we aim to:

• Create a workplace environment and culture that encourages and supports mental health and wellbeing.
• Increase employee awareness of mental health and wellbeing issues and behaviours.
• Reduce stigma around mental health issues, especially depression and anxiety in the workplace.
• Support staff experiencing a mental health problem whilst in our employment and upon a return from any period of absence.

We also have a Mental Health Awareness Working Group, a Mental Health First Aider, Mental Health Awareness Champions and a Mental Health Awareness Slack channel.

Since we have all been working from home we have taken extra care to make sure that there are a number of ways that we can all keep in touch and share time together. Obviously we have the more ‘traditional’ methods of telephone and email but we also have Slack and of course Zoom and Google Hangouts. Most of our teams have daily meetings, there are also regular 1:1s between staff and of course most of our staff have regular contact with clients too. Our monthly staff briefings, tech talks and staff socials have all been amended to work as group video calls and seem to be working really well

We also share with the team the support that is available from different organisations and we’ve included it below. Sometimes it's the little things like acts of kindness that make the most difference. No one really knows what is going on in another's life so kindness is key.

For more resources and information you can visit the following

MIND – Coronavirus and your wellbeing

Mental Health Foundation – Looking after your Mental Health during Coronavirus outbreak

ACAS – It’s OK to feel OK: Working through your Moods in a Pandemic

NHS – Mental Wellbeing whilst staying at home

NHS – Every Mind Matters