The Mental Health Project (UBM)

Steven Rigby was inspired to campaign on mental health issues after attending the One Young World 2016 Ottawa Summit. On his return to UBM, Steven started The Mental Health Project to increase awareness of mental health around the company and provide structures to support potential issues and to signpost people to relevant resources for help. The Project started as a forum on the UBM intranet Hub, sharing resources on managing anxiety in the workplace and allowing employees to share their own experiences with mental health issues. The Hub content has engaged approximately 2,000 UBM employees to date. Eight mental health related events have been hosted across three UBM offices in the EMEA region, engaging with 450 people. 12 Mental Health First Aiders have been trained to spot early signs of mental health issues, help people access support and reduce the stigma around mental health. The Mental Health Project aims to normalise conversations around mental health between employees and managers. To date 30 managers have been trained to recognise the signs of stress and manage stress in their teams. The Mental Health Project and team of Mental Health First Aiders were nominated for an internal award in January 2018.