‘Mental health matters’
■ Mental Health is Everyone’s Business: Poppy Jaman OBE, chief executive officer, City Mental Health Alliance and ambassador of Mental Health First Aid England; Atif Choudhury, cofounder and CEO, Diversity and Ability and Zaytoun CiC; and Jonny Jacobs, finance director at Starbucks UK
BUSINESS leaders should promote positive working environments which support good mental health, three mental health advocates said.
City Mental Health Alliance chief executive Poppy Jaman said senior leaders and line managers need to encourage employees to understand their own mental health. She referred to statistics provided by the NHS that showed up to 10 million people will need mental health support as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Jaman said: “We need to convert as many white male leaders as we can on taking mental health seriously.”
According to Starbuck’s Jonny Jacobs, 90 per cent of people will not talk to their line manager about their mental health. “They think it is career limiting to talk about it,” he said, adding: “The finance community isn’t known for emotion, but we’re doing a lot to improve storytelling.”
Statistics have shown that one in four people in the UK will experience a mental health problem each year. Jacobs admitted struggling with his own mental wellbeing when he was growing up. “We all have (issues with) mental health and even I questioned my place on this earth when I was younger,” he said.
Co-founder and CEO of Diversity and Ability Atif Choudhury admitted he used to be reluctant to vocalise any issues he had with his mental health. “I would never have discussed this 10 years ago,” he said. “What else are people masking to the point it becomes a moral injury?”