By Hannah Kerfoot and Swetha Babu
The 10th of October 2024 was World Mental Health Awareness day, an initiative which has been celebrated since 1992. The Awareness day encourages discussion and education about mental health, to bring attention to mental illness and its major effects on people’s lives worldwide, as well as advocating against the social stigma which is still too-often attached to mental health conditions.
This year’s theme is “Prioritising Mental Health in the Workplace”, a theme which we at Pharmora fully support! It is important to recognise that the workplace can be a big factor on stress; 17.1 million working days are lose each year in the UK due to work-related stress, anxiety, and depression (according to Health and Safety Executive).
So, what has Pharmora done this year to champion mental health since last year’s awareness day?
Pharmora has two certified Mental Health First Aiders (MHFA) in the workplace. Our MHFAs obtained their 3-year certification by attending a 3-day training course, followed by an exam, at St John Ambulance.
To kick of Pharmora’s mental health programme, the MHFAs gave an Introduction presentation, where the employees were made aware of the duties and responsibilities of the MHFAs and how they can help, by primarily supporting their coworkers. Apart from these, Pharmora also has a ‘wellbeing budget’ initiative in place for our coworkers, where employees can claim upto £40 a month, which they can use for any wellbeing activity, including gym memberships, yoga classes, spa days and even concert tickets!
Mental health awareness days, weeks, and months are celebrated by offering our employees sweet treats, organising games as a relief during stressful work periods, and educational presentations on bringing more awareness, including presentations on Neurodiversity.
On the first annual Pharmora Away Day, the MHFAs held an interactive and fun True or False activity as well as a mental health educational workshop on different mental health facts. Our first aiders are continuing to organise more activities to keep the team morale up and going!
Pharmora has also organised away days for team building outside of work hours, as a break from our day-to-day work schedules, including trips to the theatre, amazing meals, delicious drinks and good times!
In recognition of our stellar team, Pharmora held an Employee Appreciation Day! This consisted of everyone writing heartfelt notes about what they like and appreciate about their coworkers. Everyone got more than one note, as our team had a lot of lovely things to say about each other.
It’s easy to focus on the negatives, and sometimes positive praise can slip past you if you aren’t in the right mindset to see it. We hope this initiative helped our team to understand that everyone does see their good qualities and their effort.
In the summer, the MHFAs encouraged the team to get involved with the Big Butterfly Count initiative! This was following a study which showed that getting out into nature and counting butterflies for just 15 minutes can lower your anxiety levels by 9%! Although the disappointing summer weather meant that butterfly numbers were a little reduced this year, the team still enjoyed getting involved in this beneficial initiative, and it was nice to be able to contribute to citizen science and collaborate with the rest of the nation.
Finally, as an ongoing strategy to keep our mental wellbeing as high as possible in the office, our MHFAs release the Mental Health Survey every 3-4 months. The results of these surveys can help us to see what is working and what isn’t in the office and make any changes we need to in order to ensure that everyone feels heard and feels good about working here at Pharmora.
We encourage everyone to take a closer look at mental health in the workplace, as one way or another, it affects all of us – so let’s not look the other way!
