Yesterday on October 10, 2018 many participated in World Mental Health Day with the goal of increasing awareness, reducing stigmas, and promoting support as it relates to mental health.
This is a remarkable opportunity to highlight mental health issues within workplace conditions. Yet, I firmly believe it is a constant challenge to continuously promote psychological well-being within the workplace, even for someone trained in psychology. In fact, just today, one day after World Mental Health Day, I was prepping for a Diversity & Inclusion training and I came to the realization that many times these presentations glance over discussion related to mental health. From my experience, I would argue these presentations tend to gravitate towards race, gender, and age as prototypical points of discussion (which are very important!) while generally ignoring the prevalence of psychological disorders and stress related issues within the workplace. However, through this reflection, I have made it a point to also address psychological issues within these presentations, reaffirming the goal of World Mental Health Day to raise awareness of mental health issues.
It made me wonder, how do you avoid restricting yourself to stereotypical topics within Diversity & Inclusion training? Do you have any examples of training that has specifically focused on mental health? Let’s talk D&I and the special custom workshops we offer!
