Thursday 10 October 2019

World Mental Health Day (WMHD) is an annual worldwide event held on 10 October dedicated to raising awareness of mental wellbeing and is an opportunity for everyone at Network Rail to become involved in promoting mental wellbeing where they work. This event will continue our campaign to end mental health stigma and embed the message across Network Rail that ‘its ok to say you’re not ok’.

This year, WMHD is centred on the theme of suicide prevention, set by the World Federation for Mental Health. Suicide prevention is a particularly pivotal theme for the rail industry. Two hundred and seventy-one people died by suicide on the railway in 2018/19. For every person that dies, at least ten members of staff are directly affected.

For WMHD on 10 October 2019 we have a planned agenda of events held in the Q:MK. Speakers on the day include Andrew Haines, chief executive, who will be hosting a session about the importance of mental health to the business and will reconfirm Network Rail’s pledge to support mental health by signing the ‘Time to Change Pledge’, previously signed by former Network Rail chief executive Mark Carne in 2014. You can find the ‘World Mental Health Day – QMK agenda’ to the right.

NEW World Mental Health Day toolkit

For those not based in Milton Keynes, the health and wellbeing team have created a toolkit (WMHD Briefing Pack) which outlines how you can take part on the day, how you can promote mental wellbeing where you work or continue to support your own mental wellbeing. You can also play the new ‘Ask Twice’ video on the Network Rail mental wellbeing hub and use the ‘Ask Twice Discussion Pack’ to facilitate a discussion around mental health within your teams or with colleagues.

The toolkit and pack can be found to the right of this page.

Link to the mental wellbeing hub here: https://ohw.hub.networkrail.co.uk/Pages/Ask-Twice.aspx

Mental Wellbeing Healthy Hour

You can also use the ‘mental wellbeing healthy hour’ and discussion pack to learn more about how to spot common signs and symptoms of reduced mental wellbeing, steps to consider to promote mental wellbeing and increases awareness of some of the resources and services available. This pack is also supported by the new ‘mental wellbeing discussion tool’.

Time to Change

The Time to Change Employer Pledge signals commitment by employers across United Kingdom to changing how we think and act about mental health in the workplace and make sure that employees who are facing these problems feel supported.

Network Rail is partnering with Time to Change and joining more than 450 other employers to continue efforts to remove mental health stigma and discrimination. It focuses on changing the way people think and act about mental health problems.

You can use some of the resources to the right of this page to promote mental wellbeing where you work and encourage others to recognise ‘its ok to say you’re not ok’.