Three former board members of Mental Health First Aid England have published an open letter asking for the Private Members Bill requiring employers to offer mental health first aid training to be amended.

The Bill, currently at second-reading stage, is designed to make mental health first aid part of first aid training requirements in workplaces as well as in wider society. Mental health first aid teaches how to help a person developing a mental health problem, becoming more unwell, or in a mental health crisis. If successful, employers and colleagues could play a part in spotting symptoms, signposting people to further help, or simply just listening.

Proposing the Bill, Tory MP Dean Russell told the Commons the change would lead to more people spotting the early signs of mental health issues in the workplace and therefore saving lives. Many businesses already offer mental health training to first aiders, but it is not currently a legal requirement.

Russell told MPs:

"People do not always wear bandages to show where they have anxiety and depression. This Bill will simply mean that workers have a person to signpost them to the help and support they need, when they need it."

However, the ex-MHFA board members – Amy McKeown, James Brown and Robert Manson - believe that the Bill, as it currently stands, could create unintended and potentially negative consequences.

Writing to MP Dean Russell, the authors said:

“We believe, as you do, that mental health should have equal parity as physical health but think that there are other ways to achieve that than this Bill and that, as it currently stands, it could create unintended and negative consequences. Our concern over your Bill is that mental health first aid is only one piece of the jigsaw when effectively managing and supporting mental health in the workplace and that, while useful as a literacy training tool, there has always been controversy about what the role of a mental health first aider should be, and the appropriateness, governance and boundaries of these roles. Making mental health first aid a legal requirement could compound issues already being seen and encourage more organisations to use them.

“We advocate some of mental health literacy or awareness being used as part of a whole organisation approach or strategy for mental health. This needs to include prevention and support as well as highlighting the roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders across an organisation to adequately support employees."

The authors believe that making mental health first aid, on its own, a legal requirement has the potential to cause the following problems:

• It can be used as a tick box by organisations; training a few people rather than looking at how to support workplace mental health in its entirety.
• There is a vulnerability risk for mental health first aiders. These are people who after doing a short awareness training are then often expected to offer peer support to others around mental health, outside of formal organisational processes and systems, with no support of their own.
• There can be confidentiality issues that arise especially around the risk of suicide.
• There is a legal risk and responsibility for organisations who know about disclosed mental illness. This can fall through the gaps of informal peer support systems.
• Mental health first aid relies on signposting to support services, which relies on adequate support being available. This is not always the case and awareness without support can cause more problems.
• Mental health first aid might not be the right approach or fit for an organisation depending on culture, hybrid working arrangements or other reasons such as the type of industry.
• Organisations may have other mental health support in existence including a strategy, access to therapists, counselling, an Employee Assistance Programme, or may use an approach such as Trauma Incident Management (TRiM) or Sustaining Resilience at Work (StRaW). There should not be a restrictive approach to workplace mental health.

The letter continues:

“We believe that the Bill should be broadened to include more of a systematic approach which includes treating mental health and psychological factors equally to physical factors in risk assessment, training, rehabilitation, and suicide plans.

“There should be stronger enforcement of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Stress Management Standards and if companies with over five employees (the HSE criteria for risk assessments) fail to have a credible mental health approach in place and in use then there should be repercussions. The HSE should provide further guidance and criteria to make companies accountable for this and need to enforce more proactively."

The authors make other suggestions, including mandating the new global ISO 45003 standard in psychological health and safety, or ensuring organisations publish absence and mental health data similar to the gender pay gap.

The open letter can be read in full here.

The Bill is currently going through its second reading in the House of Commons. Meanwhile, April is Stress Awareness Month and in 2023 looks at how employers can go beyond just talking about mental health in the workplace.

Rob Vondy, Head of Stress and Mental Health Policy at HSE, says:

“Good communication is vital as stress affects people differently – what stresses one person may not affect another. If you don’t understand the problem or its extent, tackling it will be more difficult. Factors like skills and experience, age or disability may all affect whether an employee can cope. People feel stress when they can’t cope with the pressures or demands put on them, either in work or other outside issues. Start talking to your colleagues about any issues now – the earlier a problem is tackled the less impact it will have.”

International Workplace’s 'Stress in the Workplace: A manager’s guide' provides further guidance and is available to download here.