Supporting Mental Health at Work with Blue Colibri
A while back in 2022, a small group of five university students at Panteion University wanted to make a difference and bring social innovation through a project that dares to challenge real issues in their community in Europe, from Greece. This group would become our Blue Colibri organization, and thus our journey, as part of the Dare to Challenge Social Innovation project, started towards one purpose — to find a way to support individuals struggling with the effects of their jobs on their mental health. In this article, we want to share with you our journey so far, as we try to challenge the issue of mental health at work.
Who is Blue Colibri?
Blue Colibri is a non-governmental-foundation (NGO) based in Athens, Greece, focused on addressing one problem: the risks of mental health in the workplace. As we state in our website, our vision is a world with good mental health for SMB (Small and Medium Business) workers and employers, and driving change for a more mental health-conscious workplace, where current legal regulations might not reach in comparison to bigger companies. Similarly, our mission is to have an impact on mental health in the workplace; to address the connection and cause-effect relationship between mental health and workplace conditions, bring awareness to the risks, and stand up for viable, healthier and more accessible working conditions.
Refining the topic of mental health at work
But how and why do we focus on the specific topic of mental health at work? Let’s discuss the main insights we extracted from our 5 WHYS process, which was followed to figure out the cause-and-effect relationships on a specific topic or issue that is important for our team individually, and to determine the root cause of a defect or problem by repeating the question “Why?” five times. In our case, it also was to break down each one of those topics into different parts that could coincide with other parts of someone else’s topic.
Looking into the topics coming from this process, after further discussion, we decided to focus upon a specific topic that was revealed as an insight, which was “mental health”. Specifically, we were able to connect many answers from previous questions during the task with the specific topic, creating an assemblage of concepts all equated to the same topic of “mental health”.
But what about the “at work” part of the issue we focus on? At some point, our team had reached a dead end with the topic of mental health — as it was simply too broad — and even after further discussion, where we refined the topic “mental health at work”, we discovered some more questions that needed to be answered;
- Why is this issue important? Why should there be an organization to support workplace mental health?
- “Why do we want to and/or should create an NGO for workplace mental health?”
- “What actually causes those mental health issues and risks at work (if there are any) and why are they often neglected?”
Understanding Mental Health at Work; What is it and why is it important to address?
We distinctively mention addressing and solving the risks of mental health at work. But what are they? A 2022 article by the World Health Organization summarizes the key points of the issue we try to challenge, and describes that these risks “…may be related to job content or work schedule, specific characteristics of the workplace or opportunities for career development among other things.” These can include things like “excessive workloads or work pace, understaffing; long, unsocial or inflexible hours; lack of control over job design or workload; job insecurity, inadequate pay, or poor investment in career development…” amongst others. The work environment itself can amplify wider issues that negatively affect mental health, “including discrimination and inequality based on factors such as, race, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, etc…”. A lot of workers already struggle with severe mental health conditions themselves, which makes them more likely to experience inequality or intensified stress at work. Similarly, unemployment, job and financial insecurity, and recent job loss are also risk factors for mental health (The World Health Organization, 2022).
Alright, but why is this important? As said by the CDC, mental health affects how we think, feel, and act, and determines “how we handle stress, relate to others, and make healthy choices”. It follows us in all parts of life, and is equally important to physical health and affects it; for example, “depression increases the risk for many types of physical health problems, particularly long-lasting conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.”
Specifically in the workplace though, the success of any business relies on the positive mental health of the workers. It creates resilience against life’s challenges, and as such obstacles and negative emotions that one comes across in the workplace, and being able to control these can help people remain mentally healthy and productive. The poor mental health of an employee also costs a lot in the workplace, and affects both; a 2023 study revealed that the main results of the impact of poor employee mental health in the workplace are strained workplace relationships; workplace errors and poor decision; declining company revenue; low morale and increased risk of job flight, and damaged reputation of the company itself. Lost productivity, absenteeism, high turnover rate, and even higher health insurance costs can be connected to this, all which affect small businesses even worse. (Paychex, 2023).
So, what can be done to limit these risks and protect employees? WHO recommends that organizations that support workers’ health can prevent and solve work-related mental health issues by protecting and promoting mental health at work; supporting workers with mental health conditions to participate and thrive in work; and creating an enabling environment for change. Any action that addresses mental health at work requires the involvement of not just the workers but also their representatives, the employers, and any other association that tackles mental health. Good news is that after the first waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, many employers have become more aware of the importance of mental health at work, but there’s still a disconnect between them and employees, as the latter feels less motivated to talk about these problems than ever.
For our team, it was clear through this research that the stigma around mental illness is one of the main reasons why people don’t seek help, coming from a total of misinformation, lack of understanding, and lack of resources — which helped us comprehend the issue we challenge, and manage our development process as an organization, so as to genuinely respond to real world problems.
Aligning with Sustainable Development Goals
Additionally, it was necessary that the development of our social innovation solution reflected and connected with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), made by the United Nations to “provide a global blueprint for dignity, peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and in the future”. It was clear for our specific cause that we should address the 3rd Goal — Good Health & Wellbeing. This goal focuses on ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being at all ages, and while it’s primarily focused on universal physical healthcare, it also includes mental health, since those are equal to each other. Our specialization in mental health in the workplace though, means we also address Goal 8 — Decent Work and Economic Growth, which is focused on promoting inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all; as such, we concentrate on creating an inclusive and safe working environment for employees, by focusing on challenging the risks of mental health at work, which can lead to better productivity and economic growth for small and medium businesses — which is positive not just for them, but for an entire community.
Further Research
While we already discussed in depth about understanding the issue we are challenging, it’s also important to take into consideration the current field and market; who are our competitors? What other similar organizations are also tackling mental health at work?
Since we are based in Greece, research was done to find Greek organizations that work on mental health at work; from private businesses to government-based associations and non-profit organizations like ours, many Greek mental health businesses seem to deal with all aspects of mental health — depression, anxiety, stress management amongst others — and offer libraries of sources on these topics to spread mental health awareness, as well as a plethora of active services — but very few are specifically focused on “mental health at work”. International organizations follow a similar pattern but, as expected, there’s a slightly greater variety of services aimed at “mental health at work”.
Defining our Audience: Creating Personas
Creating personas can help any organization better understand their target audience better and the challenges individuals face. For this purpose, after generally defining our audience and other that could presumably be associated with Blue Colibri’s cause(see pictures above), we created 3 different personas that, based on our research and general assessment, would make up the average person interacting with a mental health at work organization. These personas are Blue — a service worker, Red — a business corporate employee and Green — a business owner. All of them gathered the most outstanding characteristics related to our main issue. But of course our assumptions aren’t enough to create an image of our audience.
In order to gain a better understanding of the real audience for Blue Colibri, we had to move past these presumed personas, and towards a real audience — and for that, it was important to conduct some kind of interactive customer research. Specifically, we went through the process of conducting multiple interviews with people based on our imaginary personas — with employees and employers alike — who have experienced mental health issues in the workplace, and who want to provide mental health sources to themselves and to other employees.
This procedure helped us gather information and vital insights into the needs and concerns of the target audience we are trying to reach, update our personas, and help tailor the messaging and resources to better serve them. Additionally, by conducting deep dives into the data collected from this kind of research, we can assist to further identify any unique challenges faced by these people and design more effective interventions.
Building the organization in reality
At this point, we were able to practically start building the organization — including our website and other digital channels, with basic information, content and activations grounded on our research findings and feedback we gathered from our interactions with people of interest. We describe the main challenge of our organization as such:
“Employees and workers struggle with the risks of mental health at work, for which they don’t have the proper resources or services to understand, address, and manage. Similarly, SMB employers usually lack coverage from mental health legislations, and find it difficult or they’re unsure of how to provide mental health resources for their workforce.”
Our solution? To raise awareness on mental health at work, provide helpful and reliable resources on the topic, and offer convenient and accessible mental health services for the smaller employees & businesses, to create a mentally healthy culture & work-life balance for all.
In theory, we built a mental health initiative and strategy to provide a wide range of solutions to address the risks of mental health in the workplace. This involves:
- Raising Awareness & Breaking the Silence: Bringing awareness to the importance of mental health at work and its possible risks to employees and employers alike, by providing reachable resources, opportunities, and education that highlight the importance of mental health in the workplace.
- Creating a Mentally Healthy Culture: Supporting employees and employers on how to recognize and address mental health issues at work, establishing peer support networks and mentoring programs to help employees build relationships and provide mutual support, and encouraging employers in the development of workplace mental health policies that outline expectations and procedures for addressing mental health issues.
- Improving Access to Services & Support: Sourcing, providing, and promoting factual information and sources on the risks of mental health in the workplace, as well as interactive services, both online & at work.
In reality, the practical implementation of these concepts includes:
- Setting up a digital library with a plethora of resources, information, and services, from Blue Colibri’s wide online research and data collection, that provide simple, free & accessible advice for mental health at work,
- Creating content surrounding all kinds of mental health at work topics, throughout our online media channels, like infographics, posts, etc., to spread awareness on the matter and increase the availability of mental health at work information more for a wider audience,
- Offering counseling services for employees and for employers to access for personal use or to implement in the workspace,
- Organizing online workshops and seminars on topics such as stress management, resilience building and mindfulness amongst others,
- Developing mental health awareness campaigns to encourage open conversations about mental health.
So far, we have managed to apply most of these practices in the real world at a different rate and quality, like providing sources and educational materials on workplace mental health topics such as stress management, burnout prevention and self-care, sourcing convenient information, developing interactive activities, like online workshops, to build awareness about workplace mental health issues, and in general augmenting an online support network to provide employees and employers with a safe space to get help and share experiences, through Blue Colibri’s digital channels.
Challenges — Solutions — Outcomes
It’s not surprising that, like anyone developing an organization, our team definitely hit some bumps in the road. Some of them include our own lack of total awareness and knowledge on the topic — while our drive to create social innovation in mental health is genuine, we don’t claim to be experts, so it was critical to do a vast research on the subject before we move onto anything else. Similarly, we’ve had access to limited resources and lack the necessary funds to provide employees with the full mental health services they need — so to combat this, we shifted focus more on bringing awareness on the risks of mental health at work, providing content and resources from our own research, that require a controlled amount of interactivity from our audience. This was also done to avoid work overload — we have a very small group of members that keep up Blue Colibri’s activity, and our mental health at work should also be in good condition to support our community.
This shift in focus wasn’t just a individual choice though — we figured out that, in combination with the previous factors, this is the best way to discuss mental health risks in the workplace, considering not just the mental health stigma that makes many people uncomfortable discussing such issues, but also their lack of awareness; while they may be aware of the symptoms of mental health issues, seeking help can become a very discouraging process, especially concerning the effects of work on their health. So, providing information on these topics in a structured but still interactive and approachable way is integral to advocate for managing the risks of mental health at work.
Next Steps
Currently, our team is considering expanding more on workshops and seminars on mental health, which we currently have worked on as a test-run, where we got positive feedback from past interviewees. Additionally, we wish to amplify our content creation, to improve communication and approachability with a larger audience interested in our cause that simply hasn’t heard of us yet, with further activity on our website and our social media, like Instagram and Facebook, by creating more accessible, interactive and creative content. Our team is also interested in augmenting mental health programs that provide education and resources to employees — like hotlines and referral services, and tools to help employees better manage their mental health — as an extension of our consulting services, which would benefit employers who are looking to implement mental health support for their workforce.
Reflecting on creating real world impact
Our journey as Blue Colibri so far has challenged our thoughts on what it really takes to create real world impact. Social innovation requires not just the drive to challenge an existing social (or other) issue, but understanding how real people affected by that issue would be impacted by the changes this action would bring, following a human-centered design approach. For Blue Colibri, this meant to start understanding the topic of mental health at work through the perspective of the Greek and European community of SMB employees and employers, understand the real challenges regarding mental health in the workplace, what it would mean for them to tackle these issues, and tailoring the way we create solutions to meet their specific needs.
Only then can any organization move onto real world implementation of possible solutions, which we did by forming useful ways that provide employees and managers better access to mental health resources and an aggregated variety of services for their needs. To measure the possible impact of these initiatives though, requires constant comprehensive data collection and evaluation measures from the audience, which for our team meant to go back to our interviewees that tested our activations and consider their feedback. Only through constant responsive improvement can we, and any organization like us, assess the success of our efforts and ensure the conception of genuine real-world impact — otherwise, if we aren’t properly awknowledging and challenging real-world issues in a way that improves people’s lives, there wouldn’t be any value in our social innovation project.
Find Blue Colibri on:
Our website: http://bluecolibri.tilda.ws/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bluecolibri_ngo/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088257244235
Sources:
About Mental Health. (2021, June 28). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). https://www.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/learn/index.htm#:~:text=Mental%20health%20includes%20our%20emotional,others%2C%20and%20make%20healthy%20choices.&text=Mental%20health%20is%20important%20at,childhood%20and%20 adolescence%20through%20 adulthood.
Effects of Mental Health in the Workplace & Why It’s Important. (2023, January 17). Paychex. https://www.paychex.com/articles/human-resources/workplace-mental-health-effects
Mental health at Work (2022, September 28) World Health Organization: WHO. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health-at-work
THE 17 GOALS | Sustainable Development. United Nations. https://sdgs.un.org/goals
Nefeli Babe Nefeli Lazaridi Christina Nikola Danai Maria Spyropoulou Betty Tsakarestou
