Interview: Stevie Spring, Chair of Mind, the mental health charity

Stevie Spring has spent her life in business and now has a portfolio of interests that includes 150,000 people. If people are a business’s greatest asset, then that gives her an awful lot of assets – and an awful lot of responsibility.

This was the crux of her keynote speech at our virtual Internal Audit Conference on 1 October and it is no light matter – particularly given the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on the economy and workforce. Mind has announced a “mental health emergency” that is emerging in tandem with our physical health crisis and Spring is be urging organisations to act now.

“We need to ask what we can do to help people, to support them working differently,” she says. “If nothing else comes from this experience, we need to help people develop resilience and create kinder, safer and fairer workplaces that get the best from everyone – this is good for business as well as for individuals.”

Even before the pandemic, mental health was described as the Cinderella of the health service. Spring points to research that suggests that 300,000 people a year are lost from the UK workforce because of mental health issues. This is now likely to soar. Mind estimates that the numbers of people with mental health problems could increase by 40 per cent as a result of COVID-19.

“We say we’re all in this together, but it’s not true,” Spring says. She points out that many of the people who are struggling most to cope with the crisis were already less resilient before it began. Some of these people are now coping with bereavement, caring responsibilities and increased anxiety levels. Some have lost their jobs, some are furloughed and fear losing theirs. Some are facing the stress of working on the frontline, while others are shielding or suffering in abusive relationships while working at home.

Cultural attitudes to mental health can affect sections of society in varied ways, while social deprivation and ethnic background can affect the level of perceived and real risk of catching COVID-19. Each case is different and different people have different ways of coping.

Companies are facing many challenges at the moment, but, Spring argues, caring for their people should not be sidelined. This would have an economic as well as a human cost for the country and for organisations. “Mental health was already the largest cause of health problems in the UK before COVID-19 struck,” Spring points out.

Make a difference

But the response of managers and boards to the issue can make a real and tangible difference. “It’s not enough to have a policy and procedures in place. This cannot be a tick-box exercise,” she says. “But the least organisations can do is to sign up to a workplace wellbeing initiative and make a genuine commitment to supporting mental health at work.”

Managers should prioritise talking to their staff and listening to their concerns. “Keep in touch and make this a two-way conversation. Learn as you go,” she advises. “It’s important to treat people as individuals and to make it clear that you will not judge them or take negative actions as a result, for example, by ‘kindly’ demoting them to give them less responsibility.”

Image: Stevie talks prioritising extra urgent support in the workplace at our virtual Internal Audit Conference

Talking openly about mental health issues and making people feel that they can “bring the whole person to work” without hiding anything is vital. This should apply to those at all levels of the organisation. The fact that Lloyds chief executive Antonio Horta-Osario took eight weeks off work in 2011 to deal with stress made it clear that this is not an issue of “weakness”, or something that means people are unfit to return to work when they feel better – and this is just one of many examples, Spring points out.

Everyone in business now needs to be a good people person, she adds. Internal auditors need to improve their so-called “soft” skills, but so do all their colleagues in other disciplines. “To get the most out of people you need to be empathetic, you need to listen and to understand,” she says.

Self-preservation

In addition, managers need to take care of their own stress levels and mental wellbeing. They should recognise that managing a team remotely while also dealing with personal concerns around COVID-19 and heightened anxieties about work levels, reduced budgets and corporate finances will take its toll on them as well as on their teams.

“The airline principle applies,” Spring says. “In an emergency, make sure you put on your own mask before assisting others. We all need to be kinder to ourselves.”

At government level, Mind is campaigning for investment in mental health provision. It recently published a five-point plan entitled “Mental Health After Coronavirus”. This calls for the government to invest in community services, prioritise and protect those most at risk, reform the Mental Health Act, create a financial safety net for those suffering mental health problems and understand the impact of the pandemic on young people and put this at the heart of its support package.

“Overarching all of these is the priority to invest the money already promised to improve our mental health provision,” she says.

Mental health problems can affect anyone and we should all be as aware of the effects as we are of the current health crisis. The government needs to act from the top, but businesses and managers can do a lot to help their workers deal with both health crises. This does not have to cost much money, but it does need time and managerial commitment. Spring’s message is that if your organisation is not taking the issue seriously now, it must start doing so – for the business’s sake, as well as for its employees.

For help and advice on mental health issues at work, visit Mind’s website.

This article was first published in September 2020.