Workplace Mental Health - all you need to know (for now)

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[Music]
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what's it like to work where you work
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school somewhere else busy right
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everybody being asked to do more with
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less hands up who gets their work email
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on a device at home hands up who sleeps
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in the same room as their that device
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hands up who who works evenings and
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weekends
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just to do more work the next day hands
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up who who sometimes wakes up in the
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night thinks about work can't switch off
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speaks to the phone before their family
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in the morning ah yeah early signs of
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stress okay sorry to tell you hands up
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who is so busy they they have their
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breakfast on the toilet no good
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just my brother-in-law then that's
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reassuring but but most of the things
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that I talked about are communists the
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new norm before we leave the house in
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the morning our rucksack is is half full
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it's no surprise then that that the
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third to half of us will experience some
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kind of stress anxiety and depression
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during our working lives those those
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conditions are common and they are
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responsible for 30% more absence than
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anything else including musculoskeletal
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and physical industry in injury 30% more
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and yet we we struggle in which we
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struggle on CI review workplaces and how
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they support people or not on mental
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health and I've interviewed more than
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170 people and looked at the information
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from 15,000 survey respondents and a
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mental health is complex but this much I
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know people who have poor mental health
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they want to be at work on the whole and
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they struggle in to do that when they're
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at work they they have difficulty
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concentrating communicating juggling
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tasks and they get cranky sometimes with
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the customers and colleagues but they
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can't speak up to their manager the
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manager doesn't know how to have a
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conversation the employee doesn't know
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if the manager is going to support them
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or stigmatize them or say well we're all
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stress mate or manage them out of the
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organization so our employee who wants
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to be at work doesn't know the support
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choices can't have a conversation about
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it they feel significant stigma
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sometimes from the organization
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sometimes from themselves and it just
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rumbles on right they they don't take
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the time off that they need or if they
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do they give a different reason for
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their absence and here's one of the
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reasons was because we just don't talk
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enough about mental health in our
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workplaces until
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past breaking point how do we get to
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this well I thought we were all supposed
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to be resilient these days in the
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workplace we are supposed to have
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brazilians how do you get resilience
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well you ought to have a good work-life
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balance that's the first thing okay life
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life life the field of flowers that I
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skip through to and from work right if
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your life's like anything like my life
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it contains things like separation and
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grief and dental bills and add peas that
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get stuck up your child's nostril and
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exhaust that fall off your car the day
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after the MOT but we we soldier on my
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rucksack now three-quarters full we were
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taught to and we go into work and when
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we shouldn't really be there
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presenteeism
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it's called and presenteeism costs the
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workplace 1.8 times that of absenteeism
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being away but we don't even get that
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bit right because we go in and we say to
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our manager I think it might be
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struggling it might be stress anxiety
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depression they get then always good I
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think
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well you must go and see your doctor and
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so we go off to the doctor and we say hi
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I'm really struggling I'm losing sleep I
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can't talk to my manager I'm having my
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breakfast on the toilet and the doctor
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says well if we're in this country
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you're going mmm that's interesting I'm
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gonna sign you off for two weeks it's
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the first NHS response okay it's
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well-meaning and I get that and
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sometimes time time off from from work
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is a really good thing and seeing our
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doctor is a good thing but it's not the
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first place for that conversation
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it took an employment lawyer in King's
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Lynn in Norfolk 28 seconds to be signed
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off from work having entered the
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consultation room it's not the first
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place for that so you leave the surgery
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with a with a label a diagnosis and
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you're staring down a packet of pills
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and daytime television and it's it's
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really scary I've been there
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and and if we just so quick to disengage
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people we need to be having these
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conversations in the workplace rather
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than disengaging and let me tell you
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about disengaging and I know illustrate
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the business case for this so I I
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interviewed somebody called Nick was a
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senior manager global firm constantly
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exceeding expectations at appraisal
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because there are appraisals remember to
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get more money we have to do more work
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than we should be doing different point
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but anyway so Nick Nick's mom died then
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he had his two or three days
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compassionate leave and he came back to
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the organization and he tried to
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organize himself some flexi time work
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more during the week have a bit of more
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time off from fridays and his manager
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said no on the basis that and I quote
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everyone will want it Nick's a good
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lovely guy a really lovely guy and
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really did it him but of course you know
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he was unable to talk to his manager
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they fell out he went to the doctor he
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got lots more time off but this was
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sickness and he disengaged and he never
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really came back to the organization
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properly unions go involved cost a lot
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of money and was entirely avoidable
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Sally's story
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Sally is or sell his dad died as she was
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working for international charity again
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you get successful manager and her
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manager said Sally I don't think you're
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right I think you need some more time
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off I think you you know we can do some
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work from home and a phased return and
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you might be surprised here that Sally
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still works for that organization it's
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still a high flier
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okay and she's an advocate of the
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employer so had they had the global firm
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that Nick worked for acted like the
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charity it would have saved itself many
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thousands of pounds okay so what should
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we do
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leaders
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had teachers project managers whoever
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wherever you lead you need to talk about
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mental health in the workplace when you
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speak other people listen okay the the
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conversation the positive language it
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cascades down an organization you don't
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make more people unwell by speaking
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about mental health you give them the
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opportunity to seek help sooner remember
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Nick remember Sally leaders who talk
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about mental health universally gain
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respect same with managers managers you
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need to talk about mental health in the
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workplace and you need to train managers
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train and train them to spot the signs
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and the symptoms know what to say know
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when to say it know where to shut up
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know when to listen know how to have a
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human conversation if you're a manager
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use this rule of thumb be the manager
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you'd like to have if you were
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experiencing stress anxiety depression
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HR an occupational health I can I can
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pretty much guarantee that your schools
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and and your workplaces policies on
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stress anxiety depression or absence and
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and those sorts of things are probably
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too long full of jargon self-serving
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same with the the the absence procedure
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right they when somebody calls in sick
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on that first day as a golden
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conversation for a dialogue on mental
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health who's listening who's writing
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this down
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where is it going who's offering support
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and this is the same thing for your
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people right you've got it you've got it
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offer support to your people
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therapy is fantastic stuff but through
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the NHS it's gonna take you eight weeks
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three months six lessons of therapy
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three hundred pounds
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what's that compared to a great bit of
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time off in it and that disengaging it's
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off your therapy the other thing we do
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with people when they join in a
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workplace is we teach them how to lift a
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box which is great and thank you for
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that
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but why don't we talk to them about how
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to have a conversation with a colleague
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okay call it when they're struggling
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okay so if you were out there and you
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see somebody struggling then say
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something say how are you my cup of tea
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if you think you're struggling that you
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should say something this is not just a
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a a once and done conversation it's all
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just a poster on the back of the toilet
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door it's a camp it's a cultural shift
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and it takes time okay but the wonderful
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thing is that everybody can do this okay
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what you need is a tray of sandwiches
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and a packet of post-it notes and a
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bunch of people who've been off while
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they've been working for you okay
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they'll give you all the information
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that you need okay you could you could
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partner with a charity like mindful
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employer if you like you could hire a
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consultant if you must but you really
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ought to be listening making adjustments
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changes and writing this down the Health
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and Safety Executive expect you to be
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doing this already by the way right in
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the future would be we'll be talking
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about some of the things that have been
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mentioned today mindfulness meditation
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in meetings virtual reality glasses to
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Train managers reporting on on workplace
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illness as well as injury little robots
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that pop up on your screen to ask you
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how you are psychotherapy through our
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mobile phone
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those things are being trialed right now
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they're just around the corner but
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here's the thing
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you're people don't need to throw loads
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of money of this what they want from you
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is your commitment that they can speak
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safely about mental health I said you
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all you all have the resources to do
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this look around you this is what mental
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health is it's not just the one in 103
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we all have mental health all the time
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the hands up who'd like their employer
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to do more on mental health right as an
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employer all you need to do is give your
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people permission to speak safely and be
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prepared to listen thank you
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[Applause]
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you