Supporting the mental health and well being of Black and minority ethnic staff

Did you know that there is a growing body of research that shows that people who have Black or minority ethnic heritage experience a higher incidence of mental health difficulties? Do you know the reasons for this? Did you know that a toolkit to support the mental health and well being of Black and minority ethnic staff has just been published? How are you supporting staff from these communities?

A practical and easy-to-read toolkit has just been published by the City Mental Health Alliance, a community of businesses that aims to create mentally healthy organisations.

Poppy Jaman, CEO of the alliance, has said that the death of George Floyd in the United States, the ‘triggering’ conversations from #BlackLivesMatter and the disproportional impact that Covid-19 has had on people from Black and minority ethnic communities have all played a part in causing a higher incidence of mental health difficulties in these communities. She says:

‘To build a truly diverse, inclusive and mentally healthy workplace, businesses need to offer workplace mental health and wellbeing support that is appropriate, effective and accessible to all employees.’

The toolkit provides practical suggestions for strategic actions to take, as well as examples of successful initiatives including Lloyd’s Banking Group’s Race Action Plan and PwC’s mental health awareness campaign. It explores the use of language, intersectionality and research showing the higher incidence of mental health among Black and minority ethnic communities. It provides practical guidance and good practice case studies for inclusive workplace health and wellbeing.

You can download the toolkit here 

Staff training and support

I provide training on staff mental health and wellbeing. ‘Managing the Well-being, Stress and Mental Health Continuum – Improving staff resilience, minimising impact’ is one of my most popular training courses. This workshop is currently available, due to the Covid pandemic, as an online session via Microsoft Teams.

This might be a timely event for you to arrange for your staff, given the high levels of stress and anxiety that many are currently experiencing as the Covid pandemic takes its toll.

Training can be delivered as a 90-minute, 2 hour or half-day workshop, as a single event or repeated during the day. You can download publicity for this popular training event here