Facilities management company the Westgrove Group has hailed its first Mental Health Awareness Week. The FM company sent out daily advice and information to its colleagues to help build awareness. Colleagues were also signposted to advice on podcasts and videos and given tools to test their stress and levels of positive mental health.
As part of the company’s ‘Aspire Training & Development’ programme, staff were encouraged to take a โMental Health Awarenessโ online course giving them an understanding of the importance of their own and other peopleโs mental health. Over 70 Westgrove staff are now qualified as MHFA England mental health first aiders with another 50 planned by the end of 2020. MHFA offers mental health training, including Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), a mental health skills and awareness programme.
Westgrove Managing Director Claire McKinley Smith, pictured, said: โWe are working hard to increase general awareness of mental health issues both generally and within the workplace. Working with bodies such as the Samaritans, MHFA and Revo, the representative body for retail and shopping centres, we are also looking at good practice and specialist training around mental health and suicide awareness for all our colleagues working in shopping centres.
โWe are delighted that over 50pc of our colleagues trained via eLearning during Mental Health Awareness Week and are encouraging others to do so by the end of the year. We also received some great feedback from colleagues who felt well informed and empowered after taking the course. We are looking forward to holding more Mental Health Awareness Days in the coming months.โ
Westgrove, an ACS Pacesetters SIA-approved guarding company, will be supporting World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10, and running their own Awareness Week. Visit www.westgrove.co.uk.
