With one in four of us suffering with mental health issues at some point in our life, Dyer & Butler has made a firm commitment to expanding mental health support and wellbeing resources across our business. We now have a number of support measures in place to support our people’s mental health and wellbeing as outlined below.
We have provided mental health first aider training to 75 people across our business, from operatives to board directors. This four-day training course, which is now delivered in-house, empowers our people to identify colleagues, friends and family who are experiencing mental health issues or a personal crisis and encourage them to seek professional help. Our mental health first aiders are plugging the gap between individuals and mental health professionals, helping to ensure that those with mental health issues know where and how to get professional help so that they can recover.
Expanding on the mental health and wellbeing resources that are already available to our people, we have now set up a Mental Health On-Call Number. This provides an additional point of contact for people who require mental health and wellbeing assistance. The on-call number is manned by one of our mental health first aiders and is available 365 days a year on a 24/7 basis.
We provide free access for all our people and their immediate families to our Employee Assistance Programme. This is a 24/7 helpline where our people can get immediate support or advice on matters that are affecting them at work and at home. Available support includes confidential counselling, professional guidance on a range of everyday issues, such as debt, tax, divorce and childcare, and support for achieving a healthy work-life balance.
We have established a mental health forum as part of our In Pursuit of Excellence programme. The forum focusses on mental health issues across the business, identifying and implementing changes and continuous improvements to promote an effective and sustained culture change in how we manage mental health and wellbeing at work.
The mental health forum is sponsored by the HSQE Director, Steve Broom, and its members are trained and competent mental health first aiders. In addition to their promotional activities, forum members also provide direct support to anyone in need of mental health assistance.