On 10 October 2023, to coincide with World Mental Health Day, Jacobs is inviting all organisations and industries to come together and join them for the second consecutive year in touching one million lives. Their aim is to create the ‘World’s Biggest Mental Health Check-in’ – SHP hears more from Jacobs about the initiative.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is working with partners to launch a campaign around the theme this year of “Mental health is a universal human right”. This will be an opportunity for people with mental health conditions, advocates, governments, organisations and other stakeholders to come together to recognise progress in this field and to be vocal about what else needs to happen to achieve this goal.
Mental Health is a universal human right is at the core of Jacobs’ One Million Lives campaign. The free mental health check-in tool was created to help enhance users’ understanding of their current state of mind and provide proactive strategies for personal mental health development. It’s accessible to everyone — no matter where they live, who they are or what organisation they work for.
And this October’s World’s Biggest Mental Health Check-in is an opportunity and reminder for people to hit pause for a moment and come together to check-in on their mental health. By completing a check-in, people will ideally be better equipped to understand how they are currently coping, assess the early indicators of associated mental health challenges, start positive and active conversations and get support much earlier.
“Our goal is to break down the barriers that hinder honest conversations about mental health and encourage an open culture of support,” explains Paul Hendry, Global VP for HSE at Jacobs. “We also want to leverage our extensive networks and create a ripple effect around the globe on World Mental Health Day. We want to build on the success of last year’s campaign and we have reached out to our competitors, investors, clients, partners and likeminded organisations to encourage them all to come together as one to take part in the ‘World’s Biggest Mental Health Check-in’.”
Adversity and difficulty are part of a normal life, but pressures can lead to stress and impact our ability to cope when demands are overwhelming. Taking a regular mental health check-in and developing appropriate coping mechanisms helps us gain better awareness of protective factors, learn new ones and develop resiliency.
Jacobs has a history of supporting its people through its Mental Health Matters programme. With over 2,100 employees across the globe trained as active ‘Positive Mental Health Champions’, the company regularly hosts ‘Mental Health Resilience’ calls covering a wide range of topics which have helped its people navigate the challenges of the pandemic, cope with psychological distress and grief, and manage fatigue to name a few.
“Just under 10,000 of us came together on World Mental Health Day last year where we hosted a number of calls on Mental Health Resiliency,” recalls Fiona O’Donnell, the company’s Global HSE Strategy Lead. “These calls were a lifeline for our people, and the feedback and personal stories were so impactful. The feedback we receive is open and honest and our people are grateful to have an outlet to share their hopes and fears around a certain topic which can sometimes be difficult to talk about.”
The aggregated, anonymous data gained through these resilience calls and through One Million Lives have helped Jacobs make informed and data-driven decisions in response to employee needs. This was the motivation to make One Million Lives a free resource not only to their people but to families and friends, clients, cities, communities – everyone.
However, this campaign is not just about a mental health tool, it’s about bringing people together using a combined passion to make a difference. The One Million Lives campaign does just that with organisations across the world coming together with a common goal to ensure mental health and wellbeing become a global priority for all. Other organisations who are involved this year include FormScore, #samehere, OK Positive, Thrive UK, Ripple and Mad World.
“We are delighted to collaborate with the One Million Lives campaign to participate in the World’s Biggest Mental Health Check-in,” said Eric Kussin, Founder & CEO of #SameHere Global. “At #SameHere our mission is to normalize society’s perception of mental health and make it part of our everyday conversation and taking a check-in on World Mental Health Day is a great way to facilitate these conversations. Using one of the tools establishes that we all have mental health, it lives on a continuum we are all fluctuating on and having common language and linearity on that continuum establishes consistency.”
Rob Stephenson, founder & CEO of technology company FormScore, an app and workplace platform that helps employees track and manage their wellness, is looking forward to being part of the initiative. “We are delighted to be working with Jacobs’ One Million Lives campaign to attempt the world’s largest mental health check-in. Now, more than ever, it is so important to reflect on our mental wellbeing.”
Finally, Mel Clarke, Director of Health Safety & Wellbeing at National Highways hopes the initiative can bring everyone together. “Mental Health impacts us all. We have a responsibility to take a stand for positive mental health and wellbeing. I’m delighted to support Jacobs in their efforts to bring everyone together on the 10th of October to Check-In on ourselves and each other.”
Whether you use One Million Lives, or any of the organisation apps and resources that Jacobs collaborates with, on the 10 October you are invited, along with your friends, colleagues and families to take part in the World’s Biggest Mental Health Check-in to help make mental health and wellbeing a global priority.
In this episode of the Safety & Health Podcast, ‘Burnout, stress and being human’, Heather Beach is joined by Stacy Thomson to discuss burnout, perfectionism and how to deal with burnout as an individual, as management and as an organisation.
We provide an insight on how to tackle burnout and why mental health is such a taboo subject, particularly in the workplace.
