Mental Health Awareness Week 2021

Cabot shows Mental Health is important every day

As Mental Health Awareness Week draws to a close, we thought we would take a look behind the scenes at the support we provide our colleagues to help their mental wellbeing throughout the year.

We’ve marked Mental Health Awareness Week by highlighting the benefits of connecting with nature and by showing our colleagues how to draft their own personal well-being plan, both of which are hugely beneficial to keeping you mentally well. We care about our colleagues and believe offering consistent, structured support all year round is the best way to keep people’s mental health balanced and strong.

We have trained mental first aiders on hand across our European sites. These colleagues have taken part in an approved Mental Health First aid training course and are available to staff throughout the working day as a safe, confidential place to go for initial help. Our first aiders will signpost people to the appropriate professional care or external recognised bodies to get the support they need.

In addition to this, colleagues and their immediate families have free access to our Employee Assistance Programmes, which provide 24/7, specialist, confidential support to address a wide range of wellbeing concerns.

We encourage colleagues to have regular health checks and offer these on site in some businesses. To enhance this further, we have private medical insurance and healthcare cashback plans available wherever possible.

We like to give colleagues the opportunity to do something positive for their local communities and on some sites, allow them two paid days to volunteer with an organisation that means something to them. In addition, we offer flexible working options to support people’s work/life balance.

To demonstrate that we care for each other, we have internal intranet sites where colleagues can thank each other, nominate each other for awards and recognise when someone goes above and beyond for them. Community and recognition are important in the positive environment we want to create.

We also offer free access to a Wellbeing Hub which covers the four pillars of wellbeing and offers UK colleagues support on physical health, financial health, mental health and nutrition.

During the working day, we offer our colleagues comfortable on-site break rooms and, in some locations, have outside areas where they can step away from their desk and grab a drink or sit down with their colleagues during their breaks.

All of this is in place to offer our colleagues the best mental health support we can in their working environment. We are constantly assessing ways to improve our offering and ensure we have the right support in place. The focus on mental health this week during an annual event, highlights the importance of looking after our mental health consistently.  We work hard to ensure our support network for our people looks after them all year round. Mental Health is something we all have and its important every day. If you are reading this, please look after yourself and stay well.