Putting Our Workers Mental Health First

Mental health support is key for everyone, with approximately 1 in 4 people in the UK experiencing a mental health problem each year. Anxiety, the key theme for this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week, is one of those problems and has become a focus as something that affects millions each year.

The aim of Mental Health Awareness Week each year is to focus on how we can support each other and our mental health, as well as the theme this year of increasing awareness and understanding of anxiety. For the account managers at PSI Global, ensuring our worker’s mental health is looked after has always been a priority. Two of our account managers have shared with us how they’ve helped our workers and some of the feedback they’ve received.

Upskilling our Account Managers for Added Support

It’s not just about saying we offer the support, it’s about being proactive in making sure we have the right tools to support our workers when they need it most.

Senior Account Manager Leanne Doyle is regularly on-site at the Preston Western Distributor Road Project. She has previously taken part in mental health support training and ensures she is available to offer support while she’s on-site, and that our workers have her contact information for support when she’s not on-site.

“I speak to our workers regularly about how important it is to look after their mental health. I’ve also done training with i-act to ensure I have the tools available to support them,” Leanne shared. In addition to the support Leanne has provided, we’ve also given our workers in Preston a subscription to Perkbox, a service that offers free counselling sessions and various apps that assist with mental health support.

The training programme, on-site support, and subscription service have been worth it, as Leanne has had some great feedback from our workers in Preston. One shared with us, “Leanne has been great to me after I opened up about some problems I was having. She has offered me the support that I never expected, and I appreciate everything from her!”

Another worker has also shared about Leanne, “I found myself in a difficult situation on-site and the support I received from Leanne was second to none. I appreciate everything she does for me, it’s nice to work with people who genuinely care.”

Keeping our Plymouth Workers in the Loop

Our Plymouth team are based on-site, which makes it easy for them to be there when our workers need them for support.

Each month a newsletter is sent out to our workers in Plymouth, and the newsletter often features information on mental health support. “The monthly newsletter is probably the most vital way that we support them,” said Yasmin Lobb, Senior Account Manager on-site in Plymouth. “We have included mental health helplines multiple times, and regularly carry out surveys to get feedback from the employees on how their mental health is working on-site.”

Yasmin, along with Recruitment Administrator Cameron Smith, calls the workers once a week as well to ensure that everything is ok on-site, and to see if there is anything they can help with. “They’re also aware that they are welcome to come up to the cabin to have a face-to-face chat with me any time,” Yasmin explained.