'Workers should be able to talk about mental health'

Aine Fox talks to St John Ambulance training boss Lisa Sharman about the danger of minimising mental health

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STIGMA and fear remain “huge barriers” preventing workers speaking up about mental health issues, St John Ambulance has warned.

The head of training at the first-aid charity said claims among some politicians of overdiagnosis and dismissing burnout and other struggles as buzzwords threaten to set back the conversation around mental health by decades.

The organisation has trained more than 40,000 people in mental health first-aid in the workplace in recent years, aiming to equip colleagues to offer early intervention and support to those struggling.

And while head of education and commercial training Lisa Sharman said mental health first-aiders do not diagnose conditions, they are taught how to “start a supportive conversation, listen without judgment, help that person access the right professional support”.

She warned that if a feeling such as burnout is “minimised and just put as a buzzword or is overused, it can tip into more serious mental ill-health and people stop bringing it forward”.

The government-commissioned Keep Britain Working Review, published in November, warned the UK is “sliding into an avoidable crisis” as it urged a reduced reliance on fit notes amid a high cost to employers from ill-health among workers.