An extra spotlight shines on mental health every May, and my department gets to lead over a thousand mental health learning programs as a result. I say “gets to” because it really is a privilege to work with so many caring clients who seek ways to support coworkers, friends, or family members who might be struggling.
Since we have a spotlight this month, I thought I’d use the blog to share a bit about our approach to mental health training. It’s driven by two core principles: (1) make it practical, not theoretical; and (2) interaction, not lecture, is what will help people apply the learning when they encounter real life mental health situations.
Here’s one of my favorite examples of how we apply those principles. It’s a reflection exercise, often facilitated as a group discussion, where we ask participants to first reflect on 2 questions:
- If you noticed a colleague struggling with symptoms of a head cold – sniffling, watery eyes, looking lethargic, etc. – what would you say or do?
- If one of your colleagues returned to work after taking extended time off for a heart condition, what would you say to that colleague on their first day back?
For question 1, people usually respond with things like, “I’d offer them a tissue,” or “I’d ask them if they’re feeling OK,” or maybe “I’d remind them that time off is available and encourage them to use it if they need it”. For question 2, the answers are usually along the lines of “I’d welcome them back and tell them how happy I am that they’re feeling better”.
Then we ask participants to reflect on 2 different questions:
- If you noticed a colleague with similar symptoms as the first example – sniffling, watery eyes, etc, but this time you suspected something more like depression or grief was behind it rather than a head cold, what would you say or do in that case?
- If one of your colleagues returned to work after taking extended time off to get treatment for a mental health condition, what would you say to that colleague on their first day back?
In this case, the answer to number 1 is often something like, “I’d give them space,” or “I’d make sure not to intrude, or “I’d be careful not to say anything that might make them feel even worse”. For question 2, our trainers typically hear responses such as “I’d just catch them up on work stuff, and not put them on the spot to talk about anything personal.”
These are well-meaning responses from people who genuinely care about their coworkers, but the discussion we facilitate after this reflection exercise reveals that these responses may not be best. In fact, your best response to question 3 is often exactly the same as your response to question 1. And your best response to question 4 is often exactly the same as your response to question 2. I mentioned above that practical takeaways rather than theory are what guide our approach to mental health training, and this is one of those very practical, very easy to remember takeaways: If you’re not sure how to respond to someone who you think is struggling with a mental health issue, ask yourself how you’d respond if that same person were struggling with a physical health condition. It’s a simple but powerful stigma-busting message that has tangible, lasting impacts. That’s exactly what we strive for in our learning programs.
