How do you foster a culture of inclusion and empathy for employees with mental health issues?

In my experience, the manager is often the first person to notice an employee's shift in productivity or attitude. Empathy, while still maintaining performance expectations, is the goal. This begins with thoughtful questions such as: "I was surprised when you snapped at your co-worker in our staff meeting. That's out-of-character for you. Is something, besides work, stressing you out?" "You've missed several important deadlines lately, and you don't seem yourself. Is everything okay?" Directly discussing an employee's mental health in relation to their job duties can be uncomfortable for a manager, but it is always better to ask, "Are you okay?" and offer appropriate resources, than it is to ignore when something seems off.

Fostering a culture of inclusion for employees with mental health issues requires addressing care access disparities. In the U.S., clinician shortages mean only 7% could be served if everyone sought therapy. This gap widens for people of color, with only 50,000 mental health specialists available for them, covering just 1.7% of the population. Acknowledging high rates of treatment resistance is also crucial, as up to 60% find traditional therapies ineffective, deepening distress. Offering innovative options like ketamine-assisted therapy can provide effective alternatives and support a truly inclusive approach to mental health care.

The very title "How do you foster a culture of inclusion and empathy for employees with mental health issues?" already highlights the heart of the issue. All employees are human, all employees have subjective experience, thoughts and emotions, all employees have "mental health issues". The start of raising awareness is normalising the fact that we are all on a continuum of mental health and wellbeing, normalising difference, and normalising the fact that we bring all that we are to the workplace, where we will trigger and be triggered.

Knowing the signs and symptoms is key! Sometimes the person doesn’t even know what they are experiencing. Having conversations and resources available are invaluable. Empathy and compassion go a very long way.

One of the most helpful items I’ve helped my HR clients with us providing them the information and teaching them how to utilize their benefits to assist their employees. In recent years, We have started holding mid-year education meetings that are focused to the employee changing needs that are often skipped over at annual employee benefits open enrollment.

Communication of benefits is extremely important - especially those related to mental health. Inside our organizations we need to work hard to make sure all are aware of the resources available to them. It is equally important that we work diligently to reduce the stigma that mental health is something not to be talked about. We are a long way from that point as a country, but every little bit will help make great strides for the people we lead, manage, and care about.

We have found success with building community or forming employee resource groups so there can be peer support and connection to have these empathetic and supportive conversations in a brave space. We have brought in speakers, had panel discussions, and have awareness months/days for mental health and disabilities so we can take away the stigma and normalize these conversations. Often times, many people suffer in silence and do not speak up because of biases or potential backlash from sharing. It is important to create that psychological safety on your team so that everyone can bring their full self to work which will lead to feelings of inclusion, belonging. Allyship is an important component to building that organization/team culture.

Mental health challenges do not exist in isolation of the work environment. Every organisation has a duty to identify how the organisational culture, work practices, the way roles are structured etc may actually contribute to poor mental health. Empathy is important for treatment, but of greater importance is employers considering how they may contribute to poor mental health. Benefits and programmes have limited value if the culture and organisation requires and rewards behaviour that does not support mental health.