Knowing how to talk to an employee that you think is suffering with mental health challenges can be difficult, but it is really important that you address it when you spot signs of poor mental health. Here is some guidance on how to have these challenging yet key conversations.
Help them feel comfortable:
- Talk to them in private
- Be flexible about when and where you talk
- Approach the conversation in a positive and supportive way
- Stay calm,patient, reassuring and supportive throughout
- Remember there may be outside factors that are impacting their mental health
Understand what support is available:
You don’t need to be an expert on mental health you just need to have strong awareness of the support available within the workplace for example mental health champions, employee assistance programmes and external support networks. You should consider whether you are able to make reasonable adjustments to their work life to support them.
During a conversation:
- Thank them for opening up to you
- Listen carefully to what they say
- Keep questions open ended to help them explain things to you
- Think about ways you can support for example support within the workplace or reasonable adjustments
- Reassure them that you will help them get the support they need.
- Take time to think about what you’ve discussed before making any decisions
- Use appropriate language, be sensitive, do not use offensive terms or negative language
- Be clear about confidentiality, reassure them you will only share on a need to know basis. Reassure them they can openly speak about if they wish too.
What to do if you think a worker is at risk:
Encourage them to seek help from external organisations such as Samaritans, Shout, CALM or Papyrus. Your organisation might have an employee assistance programme who you can contact for advice or direct a worker too.
Once you have dealt with the immediate situation:
Start thinking about how you can support the employee moving forward, follow your organisations absence policy and agree how you are going to keep in touch with the employee.
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