Blog: How to support the mental wellbeing of your team, through addressing the stigma

Trigger Warning: this blog mentions suicide.

As we approach Mental Health Awareness Week (12-18 May 2025) and Men’s Health Week (9-15 June 2025), now is a really important time to consider why people, and especially men, do not feel able to seek support when they need it.

In this blog we will look at why there is a stigma about mental health, why it refuses to go away and what we can all do to address it. However, an extremely brief summary is to normalise conversations about mental health and seeking help, by:

• Leading by example, talking about your own experiences and encouraging others to do the same.
• Educating yourself, and those around you.
• Learning to actively listen, not just to what people say, but also what they are NOT saying, their body language, changes in habit, routine or personality.

This blog is designed to give you the tools and confidence you may need to start addressing the misconceptions and negativity that can surround mental health.

But first, please watch John's story:

Dispelling the myths

As humans we are all unique, and therefore it should come as no surprise that what mental ill-health is, when we experience it, by how much and for how long, is as unique as we are.

Mental Health

Firstly, every single one of us has mental health. It can vary from good to poor and be anywhere in-between. It can fluctuate over an hour, day, week, year. It can be impacted by our work, our personal lives and sometimes a crossover between the two. Within each of those categories it can be broken down further (e.g., finances, physical health, relationships and more), but the key thing here is that it is individual to each person. Therefore, what might affect your mental health may not be the same as what affects someone you are talking to. Equally, if you were experiencing mental ill-health, and you spoke to someone about it, you would hope that your concerns were treated with respect, understanding and empathy. By stigmatising or dismissing someone else’s concerns you are reinforcing the barriers that prevent other people from speaking out.

Consider:

• “How would I respond if someone was telling me about a physical health condition?”
• “How would I respond if my partner, parent, sibling, child etc. was talking about their mental health?”

Mental ill-health vs. mental illness

Secondly, mental ill-health and mental illness are not the same thing:

• Mental ill-health is a broad term encompassing a range of experiences that would not meet the criteria of an illness, e.g., stress, low mood, feeling overwhelmed etc. These tend to be temporary and do not require treatment
• Mental illness is a diagnosed condition with specific criteria, it can significantly affect a person’s thinking, feeling and behaviour, it requires professional diagnosis and treatment, e.g., depression, anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder etc.

To learn more about mental health and mental illness please access the following resources:

Download the quiz

Watch the video

Stress

Thirdly, stress is one example of a cause of mental ill-health. Stress, is the way we react to a perceived danger. It has two forms – one that builds up over time from regular stressors, like a heavy workload or noisy working conditions; the other is more dramatic and is caused by a sudden or unexpected event, like a car accident or a bereavement.

Personally, I need a quiet workspace, so if I need to I work from a meeting room (when in an office), or work from home. Equally, I have recently experienced a number of bereavements and have truly valued the support I have received from friends, family and colleagues, but I also know that if I need to, I can approach relevant support services. Those are two examples of my stressors, and, over the years, I have learnt how and where to access support when needed.

Consider:

• What if the person you are line managing does not have that experience?
• What if they don’t seek help due to the perceived stigma or do not know where to turn, even if they felt able to?
• How would you support them?

The following blog provides more information:

How to support your team through stress management

Optimising wellbeing

Below we will look at what managers and senior leaders can do to build an open culture in which everyone feels able to discuss mental health. However, if you are reading this and would like to find ways to optimise your own mental wellbeing, please read our blog series which includes being active, sleep, nutrition, work-life balance, relaxation and more:

How to optimise your mental wellbeing

Why this is important

Whilst there has been a noticeable increase in research on, coverage about, and therefore awareness of mental health in the workplace, the statistics show that employees are still reluctant to talk about it and there is a discord between what managers and their employees think:

• Only 6% of men, and 4% of women, said that they’d discuss their mental health experiences with their employer (Aviva).
• 65% of employees recognise that stigma around men’s mental health remains strong, with 10% feeling it has worsened in recent years (Bupa Wellbeing Index).
• While 67% of senior leaders believe their organisation is psychologically healthy, only 51% of non-managers and frontline supervisors agree (European Workforce Study).
• Whilst 47% of employers said they offer regular workload reviews to their employees, only 14% of employees said they receive this (Benenden Health).
• Stress, depression or anxiety accounted for 46% of work-related ill health and 55% of all working days lost due to ill health in 2023/24 (Health and Safety Executive).
• Although 88% of UK employers provide an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), only 5% of employees use it (Spill).

On this final point, the reasons people do not engage with an EAP include, not knowing it exists, it is limited by its one-size fits all solution, employees are concerned about confidentiality, i.e., that what they discuss could feed back to their employer, this concern could be due to the stigma. That is why we recommend a comprehensive solution, a culture change, that embeds effective interventions to prevent people reaching crisis point, but if they do, then they have the confidence to access the support they need.

The following blog can provide you with further insights and practical steps to build a proactive prevention culture:

How to build a supportive workplace culture

What is stigma?

According to the Cambridge Dictionary stigma is ‘a strong feeling of disapproval that most people in a society have about something, especially when this is unfair’.

The key words here are ‘most people’ and ‘unfair’. Therefore, it is down to us, and those around us, to develop a better awareness, understanding and knowledge so that we can address the false stigma that surrounds it.

Why is there stigma about mental health?

We have established that the stigma that surrounds mental health is unfair, so maybe if we understand where it stems from, we can put solutions in place to overcome it:

• Fear of the unknown – particularly before mental illnesses were properly diagnosed, understood and treated.
• Misconceptions – not understanding the difference between illness and ill-health; thinking it could be ‘caught’.
• Society/culture – fear of being judged by others, fear of their reaction, that they might treat you differently if they are aware of your condition, accepting cultural norms like men not showing their vulnerability for fear of being seen as ‘weak’ or ‘incapable’.
• Ignorance – failure to discover more in order to develop a considered, balanced opinion, to understand the benefits of support, work adjustments and treatment.
• Following the crowd – ‘others fear it, so I must too’ mentality, but we don’t, or shouldn’t, accept homophobia, racism, ageism, sexism etc. so we should NOT accept prejudice, stereotyping and misinformation on mental health.
• Negative attitudes and influences – some people blame their attitudes on ‘how I was brought up’, resulting in men believing they needed to maintain a stiff upper lip, ‘don’t cry, don’t show emotion, definitely don’t express how I’m feeling’. A whole new generation are currently experiencing a very different kind of influence, with young men being subjugated by toxic masculinity. Neither of these extreme attitudes either help or solve the issue.
• Self-stigmatisation – some people may believe the negative stereotypes or have their own inbuilt misconceptions about mental health, and therefore they choose to keep quiet about their experiences.
• Language – day-to-day language that can inadvertently reinforce the stigma, e.g., using words like ‘problem’, ‘struggle’, ‘crippling’ when referring to mental health; inappropriate attitudes like, ‘leave your problems at home’; ‘are you using mental health as an excuse to get out of work’; or expressions that were once commonly used like ‘committed suicide’ instead of ‘died by suicide’. Supporters please log into the portal and visit the ‘Access your resources’ page to download ‘Language Bingo’ cards to share across your organisation and help to eradicate negative, exclusive language and learn how to use positive, inclusive terminology instead:

Log in to the portal

The reason the stigma started, and is maintained, can be due to individuals, society, organisational cultures, government policies and announcements, social media, media and so on. However, whatever the source, we owe it to ourselves, and our friends, family, colleagues and communities to call out disingenuous rhetoric when we see or hear it.

If we can remove the stigma about mental health, then people will feel safe to talk about it, and it gives them the confidence to hold their organisation to account in terms of identifying and mitigating the causes, and in seeking support for their ill-health or illness. It is through normalising conversations about mental health, in the same way that we talk about physical health, that we are able to address the stigma that surrounds it. Education, and practicing what you have learnt, gives people the confidence to start those important conversations.

If this resonates with you, please remember that you are not alone, there is always support available:

Discover support services

What can your organisation do?

Early in my career, I was given two pieces of great advice that I have always tried to adhere to:

1. Never ask anyone to do something you wouldn’t.
2. Respect every role in an organisation as it can’t function without them all.

These pieces of advice are especially true when it comes to mental health and addressing the persistent stigma that surrounds it. If we don’t lead by example, if we don’t open up about our own experiences, what happened, why, what it felt like, what support helped, etc. then how can we expect others to follow our lead, to believe it is okay to open up about their experiences?

As I mentioned at the start of this blog, key steps in removing the stigma through normalising conversations about mental health and seeking help, are leading by example, using education to inform and learning to actively listen.

Consider:

• How are you doing on educating yourself and your colleagues?

This can start by accessing and sharing resources on how to spot the signs of mental ill-health, start open and respectful conversations, use compassionate language and actively listen, and signpost support if needed:

Download our free resources

Discover our training courses

Watch the video series

Do you have policies and a strategy in place?

In order to make a culture change, embed proactive prevention strategies, and address the stigma, it is important to put the following in place:

• Management.
• Assessment.
• Targets.
• Education.
• Support.
• Communication.
• Assessing progress.
• Mentoring.
• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
• Policies.

Read the following blog to get the full details:

How to optimise mental wellbeing through workplace culture

Supporters, please log in to the portal and visit the ‘Developing’ page to access a mental health policy template:

Log in

Conclusion

At its most basic, stigma exists because we allow it to. Let’s work together to eradicate it once and for all. At Mates in Mind, we advocate for empowering all employees within an organisation and across the supply chain, by providing them with the information, education and advice that develops their competence and confidence to look after their own and their colleagues’ mental health, so that no-one reaches crisis point and good mental health becomes everyone’s responsibility.

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 Remember, you are not alone, there is always someone to talk to or somewhere to find additional help.