Surge in mental health aid at businesses

Monday 09th September 2019 13:05 EDT
 

A national training body, has reported that about 140,000 people were trained to provide aid to people expressing mental distress in 2018-19, the highest ever in a year.

Mental Health First Aid England, has reported that individuals from various industries- hairdressers to employees in global corporations have undertaken this training.

FTSE 100 company has showed that they alone have trained more than 10,000 staffers, while mid-tier and even tiny businesses are appointing first responders who can be approached confidentially by those with depression, anxiety, stress and other conditions.

In terms of numbers, big firms lead the way. More than half the FTSE 100 companies have mental health first aiders (some call them “buddies”, “champions”, “advocates” or even “be well allies”). Lloyds Banking Group has a programme to train 2,500 by next year, while National Grid and Severn Trent both have more than 1,000.

In the meantime, a YouGov survey of over 1,000 students from 8-15 years old in England, Wales and Scotland has 40 per cent are worried that school work will be too hard and they won’t be able to do it when they go back to school after the summer. This was a concern for half of 15 year olds as they approach their final year of GCSEs.

“One-in-eight children aged 5 to19 in England has at least one mental health disorder and many reach crisis point before receiving treatment. Our UK-wide specialist mental health services see first-hand how anxieties have the potential to cause long lasting trauma. with the right support from a trusted adult, children can recover from difficult experiences and work towards a positive future,” said Javed Khan, Chief Executive of Barnardo's.


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