Championing positive mental health at work across Leeds and West Yorkshire
Leeds Mindful Employer Network
Championing mental health at work
across Leeds and West Yorkshire
7th July 2022
Dear network members,
Welcome to our July newsletter.
This month we are including a special feature on financial wellbeing and we'd love to hear how the current cost of living crisis is affecting you, your staff and your business. Please share your thoughts through our very brief survey.
Please do continue to share with us anything that might be of use to fellow network members. And as always, we welcome your feedback, ideas and suggestions on how we can improve what we do - we'd love to hear from you.
Welcome to new network members
and charter signatories
The Mindful Employer Network is free to join for all local employers and their staff across Leeds and West Yorkshire. This month we are extending a warm welcome to new network members from the following businesses and organisations:
Bluebird Care
Building Interiors Ltd
Leeds Community Foundation
Leeds Gymnastics
Royal Mencap Society
TPL Experiences
WorkPlace Leeds
Youbee Media Limited
As always it's fantastic to see the wide range of local employers represented within our network. If you know someone who would benefit from being involved please do forward them this bulletin - they can sign up here.
New Charter signatories We would also like to welcome the following six employers and local businesses who have recently signed the Mindful Employer Charter for employers who are positive about mental health:
Car Care Plan (Holdings) Limited
Kirklees, Calderdale and Wakefield Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre
Leeds Marriott Hotel*
Motion 12
Yorkshire MESMAC
Youbee Media Limited
* read our recent blog from Leeds Marriott Hotel here.
Have you signed the Mindful Employer Charter? We encourage all our network members to consider signing the Mindful Employer Charter. This is a great way to demonstrate your organisation's commitment to better mental health. Being a Mindful Employer brings many benefits including access to an affordable 24 hour staff support line MINDFUL EMPLOYER Plus for only £1 per staff member per year.
Please get in touch if you have any further questions about the Mindful Employer Network or Mindful Employer Charter.
Our Ten Steps Toolkit has been recently updated and now includes 13 brand new case studies from fellow local employers. It is a fantastic place to start your wellbeing at work journey - full of information, helpful tips and useful links.
"Such a good resource! Can't wait to get stuck in and make some real changes for my team!"
Please get in touch if you'd like us to deliver a free in-house workshop for your team.
Reminder to join our new Facebook Group!
We have created a brand new Facebook group for you, our Leeds Mindful Employer Network members.
Join the group to access a wonderful portal of information, guidance and blogs, as well as connect with peers, share your tips and learn from each other's experiences.
Over the coming months we will be focusing our support for employers on the mental health impacts of the current cost of living crisis.
Our financial and mental wellbeing are closely linked and there is strong evidence for why employers should care about employee wellbeing. There are lots of resources to support you to improve financial wellbeing within your workforce - we have linked to some of these below.
Firstly we'd love to know your thoughts:
We'd like to know how current financial pressures are affecting your staff and how this is affecting their work. This will help to direct our support over the coming months.
Mental health problems can make it harder for people to manage their money, earn enough money to be financially secure and ask for help when they need it
Financial difficulties can cause worry, stress and anxiety which can worsen mental health or make existing mental health problems worse
Almost 60% men who die by suicide are experiencing economic problems such as unemployment, money worries, debt or housing arrears at the time of their death.[1]
BBC - Joe Wicks: Facing my childhood Joe Wicks discovers how his parents’ mental health issues affected him as a child, and the shocking scale of the problem of parental mental health today.
Move Mates - a walking buddy project
Could you give 1 - 2 hours per week to support some to go for a walk?
Full training and support provided
Walking regularly boosts people's confidence as well as improving physical and mental health outcomes, for them and for you
Sign up now and make walking a reality for someone in your community. Find out more at: www.movemates.com
Training and resources
Behind Closed Doors - new training courses Understanding Trauma and Trauma-Informed Support.
This 2-hour session is suitable for anyone working or volunteering with service users who have experienced trauma. It is bookable via eventbrite, or email us to arrange for invoicing. Cost is £20 per person. Understanding Trauma and Trauma-Informed Support Tickets, Fri 16 Sep 2022 at 10:00 | Eventbrite
Community Links mental health training
Community Links have a fantastic range of mental health courses coming up. Find the full list here: https://www.commlinks.co.uk/training/courses/
Able Futures free webinar
Mental Health First Aid Awareness: the importance of supporting mental health at work.
Monday 18th July at 2pm Register here
Leeds Health and Care Academy - Start Your Journey Leeds
Free on-boarding support for entry level health and care staff throughout the city
The Leeds Health and Care Academy have created a suite of funded onboarding initiatives to support retention of entry level staff in their first 0-6 months.
Free access to these initiatives is available for all Leeds health and care organisations to use and various activities can be adapted to the organisation to complement their induction process. If you are interested in offering this support to your staff or would like to know more, please register your interest with the Academy via this form.
Leeds City Council Air pollution Survey
Leeds City Councils Public Health Team are currently undertaking a health needs assessment to understand the level of need across Leeds in relation to air pollution.
As part of this, it is important to gather views of local residents as well as those working to support the health and wellbeing of Leeds residents in relation to how they feel about air pollution in the city. The feedback will be used to evaluate local knowledge around air pollution and how this can impact on health.
The survey can be accessed on the link below. By completing this and encouraging any users of your service to do the same you will be supporting us in making recommendations on improving health outcomes for the people of Leeds.
Awareness days can be great opportunities to share information, get people talking and tackle stigma. Similarly celebrations to promote diversity and inclusion can provide important reminders of the links between inequality, discrimination and mental health. Our workplaces can be great places to share positive messages, promote inclusion and inspire change.
Why not plan ahead and consider marking the following upcoming awareness days/months?
CHECK-IN with your mate
New suicide prevention campaign
West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership (WY HCP) has launched a new campaign to create awareness around male suicide and is calling on everyone to get involved:
The campaign promotes a wellbeing culture by normalising the conversation around suicide and mental health as well as providing communication assets, links to credible sources such as the life-saving Zero Suicide Alliance training, and signposting to local support.
Employer Blog
Workplace Wellbeing at Leeds Marriott Hotel
"We know that being a good employer is the best thing we can do for business"
We caught up with Jayne Uren, Human Resources Manager at Leeds Marriott Hotelto learn about her approach to staff wellbeing and why it's something every business should prioritise.
"It's not what you do, it's the way that you do it"
Geraldine Montgomerie, Partnerships and Engagement Manager at the Swan Song Project has kindly shared her reflections on her approach to developing staff wellbeing.
Without the resources often taken for-granted within larger companies, small businesses can face unique challenges when thinking about staff wellbeing. However they can also be some of the most positive, nurturing and supportive places to work.
In March we published an article in South Leeds Life specifically highlighting the benefits of Leeds Mindful Employer Network to small local businesses. You can read the article here.
We are pleased to follow this up with some fantastic wellbeing tips for small businesses shared by local business owner and Mindful Employer, Lou Henry from independent coffee shop, Opposite Cafe.
Nick shares his reflections on setting up his business and how he has prioritised his own mental health in the process. 
"We know that being a good employer is the best thing we can do for business"
We are pleased to follow this up with some fantastic wellbeing tips for small businesses shared by local business owner and 
