A Collective Approach to Creating Mentally Healthy Workplaces

by | Oct 20, 2020 | Happiness, Health, High Performance

Being Mental Health Month, over the past couple of weeks there has been an explosion of information, articles and support for mental health. And never before has there been a time when a focus on mental health is more crucial!

Uncertainty, economic hardship, loneliness, increased domestic violence, the complexity of family dynamics, overwhelm, health anxiety and decision fatigue – these are just a few of the extreme conditions that we ourselves, and our people have been experiencing this year. At the same time, working from home has enabled these pressures to be kept further under wraps and hidden from our workmates.

And this is just the beginning. It’s anticipated that the impacts of this year will release a tsunami of mental health issues ahead. Many of us are working longer hours, at maximum speed and capacity… and we are only 5km into the marathon!

Against this backdrop, we asked 4 of our incredible storytellers and champions what they believe is the essential ingredient to solving mental health issues in the workplace and creating a mentally healthy environment in which people can thrive going forward:

In addition to being responsible for Microsoft’s overall business in Australia, Steven is Chair of the newly formed Corporate Mental Health Alliance Australia (CMHAA) – a group of Australian businesses dedicated to providing mentally healthy workplaces for their people. Steven joined Microsoft in March 2014 and previous to that worked for IBM for 22 years and held a number of marketing, sales and general management roles.
Melinda runs DLA Piper’s IPT practice group comprising over 500 lawyers across 25 countries. Melinda is the first partner, and the first female, from the Asia Pacific region to lead a practice group at DLA Piper. Melinda is also a passionate advocate for workplace health and wellbeing in the legal profession. She established DLA Piper’s first bespoke mental health and wellbeing program called SPEAK, and works tirelessly to raise awareness about mental ill health, and help drive positive change across the industry and beyond.

Genevieve started her career as an occupational therapist with a passion for understanding and improving collective mental health, which she then converted to a consulting then corporate career, leading major change, which has resulted in her recently publishing the book Mentally at Work.

A/Prof Greg de Moore is an author, psychiatrist and historian. Greg has been a Director of the Minds Count Foundation since 2016 which promotes and advocates mental health within the legal profession. He was instrumental in developing their 13 Guidelines for Welfare in the Workplace, which now has hundreds of organisational as signatories across Australia.
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