Every day Kevin Figueiredo is responsible for keeping 190,000 Australians safe. That means reducing the usual physical, chemical and environmental hazards. Increasingly, though, mental illness is becoming a focus. Figueiredo is not running a psychiatric ward or a crisis centre. As general manager of safety, health and wellbeing at the Woolworths Group, he is on the frontline of a workplace battle that’s been lost for too long.
But his company, like an increasing number of others, is making progress and there’s a chance the good work will spread across more organisations.
“I started out on this journey without any lived experience of mental health issues or suicide among my family or friends,” Figueiredo says. “Last month we hired a manager whose primary task is to develop suicide prevention and mental health programs for staff. And he reminded me: ‘You do have a lived experience. You work with people who have struggled and emerged safely.’ To my mind, they are champions of mental wellness.”
One in five Australians has faced challenges with mental health, according to widely accepted research. Eight Australians every day take their own lives. Suicide Prevention Australia estimates that 370,000 Australians think about ending their life every year.
Executives like Figueiredo see the anguish of suicide and its ramifications in the workplace. They see how mental illness can be hidden yet eat away insidiously at workmates and friends until often it is too late to save someone.
Solutions are difficult to come by. So what are we missing?
Ready to help
Staff do not check in their worries at the front door before starting work each day. Employees – and yes, their managers – bear the burden of personal problems 24/7. For eight hours or more every working day, however, the office can be a very lonely and dark place.
The one-in-five figure for mental health issues is one thing, but many people across the community also know someone who has taken their own life. At Woolworths, that’s potentially tens of thousands of people with firsthand experience of the pain as well as the ways to survive life’s challenges. And given the chance, they are ready to help others.
“We need to change the conversation and celebrate those staff with lived experiences,” Figueiredo says.
As a journalist who has been in a newspaper office while suffering deep depression to the brink of suicide, with no one noticing or seemingly caring, I think Figueiredo and Woolworths are on the right track.
Australia has at its disposal an untapped resource; an army of mental health champions in companies across the nation who can make a real difference. They just need management support to do so.
Woolworths has made mental wellness its No.1 safety priority. Other large organisations are doing likewise for moral, reputational and productivity reasons. For businesses yet to commit to proactive programs, the next few months could be a turning point.
Action plans
For all the good work and counselling offered by employee assistance providers after a traumatic event among staff, prevention is better.
Now Lifeline is developing action plans to empower staff and managers across a range of suicide-safe skills, according to chief executive Peter Shmigel. “They stretch from having open discussions to spotting the signs in workmates, to supporting those in crisis or at-risk, to follow-up with colleagues impacted by suicide death,” Shmigel says.
Most importantly, Lifeline has approached other mental health organisations to determine if such action plans can be prepared for industry on a collaborative basis and offered through a one-stop shop. Work is underway for a draft of the plans to go to a new standing corporate board on suicide prevention, established out of the #stopsuicide summit of business and mental health leaders on May 1.
A template for mental wellness in the workplace is not only the humane thing to do but, especially for corporations operating in higher risk communities, a central part of company culture.
Travis Dillon grew up in a small town in South Australia. He is now chief executive of agribusiness giant Ruralco, with responsibility for 2000 staff spread across regional and remote areas where one suicide affects 135 people, in many cases the whole population.
“At its heart the rural business model has a simple value, one that is often hard to articulate: mateship,” Dillon says. “A respect for others – not just your friends, but your community.
“I have seen firsthand how far and wide the impact is on a small town. I have also seen firsthand the impact suicide has on workmates who have lost family and friends to suicide. It is devastating and we can do something about it.”
Mental wellness wardens
Ruralco has partnered with Lifeline to ensure employees are equipped to deal with conversations about suicide and mental health from a self-care perspective, and if they have concerns about someone’s mental health, know how to recognise, respond and refer those people to Lifeline’s services, Dillon says.
Once the taboo is broken, he says, something unexpected happens. “People forget to be embarrassed and they share. They talk about their personal experiences, their worries and their hope that they can help others who might be suicidal.”
That fits well with the idea of a volunteer corps of mental wellness champions. They can be “mental wellness wardens”, just as your office might have a safety warden or a first aid officer.
“I think the idea has merit,” Dillon says. “Schools and universities have counsellors, pastoral care and other support professionals. Needing guidance is not something we grow out of once we leave the education system – if anything, it probably increases. From a corporate governance and responsibility perspective, it makes sense.”
Woolworths has begun to appoint mental health first-aiders in some business units. It will soon offer online training for team members and leaders in mental health first-aid and suicide reduction. In addition, the company has identified at-risk groups that are the focus of diversity and inclusion policies.
What you can do now
As corporate leaders await the Lifeline action plan templates or find their own progress stalling, here’s an approach to move forward.
• Seek executive support to develop a suicide prevention strategy in your organisation.
•. Call for expressions of interest among staff to complete an accidental counsellor course. These are courses offered by Lifeline and other providers that equip people to recognise when others are struggling, to respond appropriately and to refer them to the best place for help.
• For organisations with existing workplace wellness programs, extend them to incorporate accidental counsellor and a set of refreshers to give your people the skills they need to remain happy and productive.
• Appoint those accidental counsellors as mental wellness wardens across the business.
• Incorporate accidental counsellor training in every orientation program for new employees.
• Support efforts to develop world best practice in suicide prevention and support for sufferers of mental illness among your staff.
Alan Stokes is a former chief editorial writer and columnist at The Sydney Morning Herald. He is also a Lifeline telephone crisis supporter and training facilitator.
Lifeline 13 11 14, beyondblue 1300 224 636
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