It's time to talk about mental health

Talking about mental health is important.

After all, it's something we all have and, like physical health, it can change; it can feel better at some times than others. In any given year, one in four of us will experience a mental health problem. But the good news is, the simple act of talking about mental health can help to support both yourself and those around you.

At Mind, we know that conversations about mental health have the power to change lives. Our recent research shows how important open conversations in communities are to support everyone's mental wellbeing. So we want everyone to feel comfortable talking about mental health.

That's the backdrop to Time To Talk Day, the nation's biggest mental health conversation. Taking place on Thursday 3 February 2022, it’s the day when friends, families, communities, and workplaces come together to talk, listen, and change lives. Will you take the chance to do so?

I've seen hundreds of examples of people doing this, and how good things follow. Our Mental Health at Work site is all about collecting together ideas, tools and examples to help you think about workplace wellbeing issues, and we recently spoke to Chris, a project manager, about working with his remote team. He had some useful advice:

"I often think about mental health as being very similar to physical health. We don't have to be experts to help each other with physical health. We don't have to understand the ailments to provide support. Mental health should be treated very similarly: I don't have to understand the whys and the wherefores and how they got there. I just need to know that they're reaching out for some support; they want to be able to share their experience and how they're feeling. Sometimes it's around just demonstrating you're able to listen."

And perhaps the shift to remote work has encouraged us to be more deliberate about what might previously have happened by chance.

"It's easier if you're in the office for people to tap you on the shoulder and say, 'Can I have a quick chat?'. So, working remotely, I've tried hard to make myself more available to team members, to say 'If you do need to have a chat, let me know - I'll make some time.'"

So of course, you should have conversations about mental health far more often than once a year. But it's a topic that people sometimes feel nervous about, so a big national day like this might give you or your colleagues the encouragement you need. We've collected a set of resources and ideas to help in a new toolkit on Mental Health at Work published last week. They include tools to make it easier to get the conversation started, including lots about Time To Talk Day.

I never tire of emphasising that mental health isn't a negative concept, and "mental health" doesn't have to imply "mental health problem" – but sometimes there are worries or problems that you need to raise with a line manager, or that a colleague might disclose to you. So there are also resources to help with that, whichever role you're in.

Finally, a huge part of what supports wellbeing at work, and makes people feel able to talk, is the culture and atmosphere. We have information on managing people with kindness, even at stressful times; and some great videos that can get you up to speed on what language people find helpful. If you can establish a kind and inclusive tone all year round, people are more likely to open up to each other.

It sounds so small, but the fact is that this one thing can make all the difference in creating a supportive community where people feel empowered to seek help when they need it: just start a conversation about mental health. However you do it.

Time to Talk Day 2022 is run by Mind and Rethink Mental Illness in partnership with Co-op, SAMH (Scottish Association for Mental Health) and Inspire.