A Kindness Revolution

I (along with 14 other classmates) took a Mental Health First Aid course on April 22 & 29th.

I learned from the course that kindness goes a long way.

You notice that someone is in distress. You stop and ask how they are. You listen non-judgementally. You assess if the other person is a risk for suicide or for harming others. You give reassurance.  You advise about seeking appropriate professional help. You provide support.

Mental health first aid suggests an approach (modified slightly) that all of us can use in our daily lives.    

We can be a little more caring towards each other. Stop and ask how someone is. Listen non-judgementally. Provide support.

We can be a little more caring toward ourselves. We have to find some “me” time once in awhile to re-charge. My classmates suggested some things that they do like play with their kids, play a musical instrument, play with a pet, socialize with friends, go for a walk or to the gym. For me, I journal.

People can be kinder to each other and to themselves.

I think that employers could help improve their employee retention rate if they paid attention to being a kind organization.

A great step for demonstrating organizational kindness is to implement the National Psychological Health and Safety Standard of Canada (the Standard).

The Standard provides an infrastructure where mental health is put on everyone’s radar and mental health becomes an everyday conversation. Start off by getting a commitment from leadership, writing a policy, getting employees involved in planning initiatives, communicating and evaluating initiatives, etc. (The process of implementing the Standard reminds me of the process of setting up a Joint Health and Safety Committee (JHSC). I’ve had lots of experience in setting up JHSC’s and creating awareness of health and safety and wellness among employees.)  

One of your initiatives can be to make Mental Health First Aid training mandatory for all first aid attendants. Mental Health First Aid can be adapted to a workplace and the adapted training can be rolled-out to all employees and managers by first aid attendants. 

I listened to a Mental Health Commission of Canada webinar called “Improving Mental Health at Work: Promising Practices for Implementing The National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace.” (This webinar (#37 in the series) presented the findings of a 3-year pilot project in which 40 Canadian organizations implemented the Standard in their workplaces.)

I like the following slide which was presented in the webinar.

 As the diagram indicates, a workplace that has a psychological safety culture is characterized by an organization that cares for its staff, staff that care for each other, an organization that thinks about self-care (i.e., when there is a major organizational change, e.g., layoff, technological change, etc., it will consider the effects that the change may have on staff), and staff that thinks about their own self-care.

A caring organization, if it's on a roll, may want to consider additional initiatives:

-Provide opportunities for employees to be heard. Give feedback on employee comments and suggestions  

-Over-communicate so that employees know what’s going on with the company. Transparency is a good thing

-Put in a recognition system where managers and employees can acknowledge other employees' efforts

-Provide continuous learning opportunities

-Provide opportunities for employee self-care (e.g., yoga or meditation classes, walking club, etc.)

Employers can begin their journey of becoming a caring organization by implementing the National Psychological Health and Safety Standard of Canada.

“When you have your health, you have everything. When you do not have your health, nothing else matters at all.” – Augusten Burroughs 

Also Published on LinkedIn on: April 30, 2017

Image Credit:  Pixabay