You have a responsibility to make sure your workers are aware of learning opportunities that can help to promote and support mental health and wellbeing in the workplace.
Finding the right approach for you
We know that all businesses are different and are likely to be at different stages in creating a mentally healthy workplace. There is no "one size fits all" approach.
It's a good idea to start by building your own understanding and awareness, so you can build a supportive workplace culture, then making sure managers have the training and skills to recognise issues and the need for support.
General awareness raising and understanding
Several organisations who specialise in mental wellbeing have information and toolkits to help you understand mental health issues.
- Mental health toolkit - Business Disability Forum (external site)
- Supporting employees with mental health difficulties - SAMH (external site)
- Advice for managers on supporting mental health of employees - HSE (external site)
- Mental health improvement and prevention of self harm and suicide - NES (external site)
- How to support mental health at work - the Mental Health Foundation (PDF) (external site)
- Bereavement Services for Employers : Cruse Bereavement Care (external site)
- Managing in difficult times - Guidelines (external site)
Video content
Health Scotland, jointly with NHS Education for Scotland, have produced three animations in an "Ask, Tell" series, to help people to start conversations around mental health and show all staff how to support people who may be feeling suicidal or experiencing mental distress.
Public Health Scotland and NHS Education for Scotland have produced videos to prompt discussion promoting children and young people’s mental health and preventing self harm and suicide.
See Me have a YouTube channel with videos about mental health in the workplace.
Online learning
Mentally healthy workplaces - Learning resources - Public Health Scotland (external site) - training for anyone who wants to learn more about mental health in the workplace.
Stress and the Workplace – Public Health Scotland (external site) - Training that focuses on the relationship between pressure and stress and how this can impact on wellbeing.
National trauma training programme (external site) The Programme includes freely available, evidence-based trauma training resources to help workforces across all sectors ensure that the needs of people affected by trauma are understood and responded to in a way which supports recovery and avoids any further harm. The NTTP also includes resources on supporting workforce wellbeing, which is central to facilitating trauma-informed workplaces.
The See Me in Work Portal (external site) provides a framework for workplaces to make continuous improvements to their culture, practice and policies to directly tackle mental health stigma and discrimination on an ongoing basis.
Case studies
You can learn from other organisations about how they've implemented mentally healthy working practices on our case studies page.
Supporting mentally healthy workplaces: national learning network for employers
A new national learning network to help employers promote and support mentally healthy workplaces has been established.
The network is jointly hosted by the Scottish Government, Public Health Scotland and See Me.
To find out more visit our National learning network for employers.
Mental health and suicide prevention learning provision
This is a review of the publicly available mental health and suicide prevention learning programmes in Scotland.
It does not include self-directed learning or programmes that focus on professional roles.
Feedback from programme trainers, providers and commissioners highlights:
- what works well
- opportunities for improvement
Major areas for improvement include:
- matching the learning needs of participants to appropriate programmes
- measuring the impact of learning on service responses
The review sets out five focus areas and suggested actions to improve mental health and suicide prevention learning for workforces and communities in Scotland.
