National Windscreens’ employees can benefit from mental health first aid as part of a new initiative headed by Mollie Payne, health and safety administrator in Leicester (pictured).
Attention has rightly been placed on mental health and employee wellbeing in workplaces across the country in recent years, not least due to the crippling effects of the coronavirus pandemic. One in four adults experience mental illness according to NHS figures.
“I took on the course myself, it’s a very current and important issue that I don’t feel is addressed as much as it should be. I completed the course to be a mental health first aider in October 2020. If someone at work is finding things tough then there’s someone they can talk to,” Mollie says.
Often with mental health issues in the workplace employees do not usually wish to speak to line managers so having a dedicated first aider means staff can be signposted to available help, such as from charities.
“If someone wanted to, we can have a welfare meeting to see how they are, I can then give them things to take to their GP like a symptoms list, so that the doctor can recognise that they’re looking for help.
“In my health and safety role we do risk assessments for everything, but now we can do stress and mental health ones too. I’m looking forward to applying an improved understanding of mental health at work to my day-to-day role,” Mollie adds.
Mollie Payne is a health and safety administrator based at National Windscreens’ Leicester office. She has held the role since 2019 and day-to-day is managing implementation of a new health and safety management system, supporting with risk assessments and the challenges brought about by how the Covid pandemic has affected workplaces. She’s completed an IOSH qualification and is now awaiting NEBOSH in occupational health and safety exam results. She has also taken on a mental health first aid course which has contributed to wider awareness of mental health issues in the workplace across the company.