Mental Health First Aid: The Critical Skill Set Every Workplace Needs
It’s standard practice to have multiple employees in every organization qualified in first aid so they can attend to physical injuries until professional medical help arrives. However, the same consideration is seldom extended toward mental stress and strain—otherwise known as mental health first aid—and that needs to change. Gallup found that “19% of U.S. workers rate their mental health as fair or poor” and are four times more likely to miss work due to poor mental health than peers who rate their mental health as good, very good or excellent. The same analysis also found that workers believe their job is more likely to harm their mental health than help it. While it may seem that your workplace is different, that may not be the case. McKinsey & Company determined that 75% of employers admit that a stigma surrounding mental health issues exists in their workplaces. What is Mental Health First Aid? In layman’s terms, mental health first aid is the ability to assist someo...