Mental Health Awareness Week: Kindness Matters

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This week marks Mental Health Awareness Week.

Mental Health awareness is something we feel very strongly about as an agency – especially in uncertain times like these.

Each year, the Mental Health Foundation campaign around a specific theme that can affect someone’s mental health. Whether it’s stress, relationships or body image, each theme highlights key aspects of life that impact our mental health – for the good or bad.

In the current climate and with all the challenges Covid-19 presents, the theme seems rather topical - ‘kindness’.

Over the past few months, through community support, comfort and hope we have seen kindness shine a light through the uncertainty of this pandemic and we wanted to share with you some of our thoughts on the measures businesses could take to support staff through this challenging time.

As a business, kindness should always be at the forefront of your ethos - after all, mental health and wellness have a huge impact on happiness, wellbeing and therefore the performance of your team. The impact of kind gestures go a long way and create a snowball effect that triggers further acts of kindness through individuals ‘paying it forward’. It’s not only those who are on the receiving end that benefit either, those who regularly engage in kind acts report lower levels of stress, anxiety and even blood pressure, whilst simultaneously boosting feelings of happiness and belonging. 

One such kind act is recognition of an individual for who they are and what they contribute. Recognition is a powerful tool and by recognising your employees (or colleagues) with a small gesture such as, a ‘thank you’ card or a bottle of wine you can have a big impact on an individual’s personal value and mental health – it can take mere minutes but the positive effect can last for days.

Mental health care and awareness is important to us too, which is why in honour of MHA week, we’ve sent each member of the Neon team a small surprise personalised gift as a thank you for their continued efforts and support. It feels good to be kind and we hope these gifts put a smile on their faces, also reminding them we’re connected and here for each other despite the current circumstances.

We are not in control of this pandemic, but we can choose how we respond. We are keeping our communication channels open, promoting a healthy lifestyle for our employees and doing all we can to combat stress levels. We are so proud of the response we have seen from everyone, being there for each other and doing all they can to support the business. We will get through this together, thank you fellow colleagues!

How does your business promote mental health awareness, and what ways do you spread kindness? We’d love to hear!