In an unusual move, an independent agent has openly said it will support staff with mental health issues.
Yorkshire-agent Dacre, Son & Hartley has underlined its commitment by appointing two ‘mental health champions’ who will help other staff.
Area manager Chris O’Mahony and head of residential lettings Emma Kerrywood have both taken part in specialist training run by Mental Health First Aid England (MHFA) with the full backing of their employer.
The pair will now act as mental health champions, sharing their new knowledge with the rest of the 160-plus team at Dacres.
O’Mahony said: “Both Emma and I have experiences of close friends and relatives with mental health illnesses and we think it’s really important to look out for our colleagues.
“Since doing the course we feel more knowledgeable about how to identify if a colleague is struggling, and also how to offer support and guidance.”
According to MHFA, some one in four people will experience at least one diagnosable mental health issue in any one year.
Kerrywood said: “We have a duty of care to our colleagues to support their mental health and wellbeing. The course gave us an insight into how it feels for people living with depression.
“We learnt that mental health and wellbeing travels up and down on a sliding scale and how to recognise the signs that people are struggling, as well as looking at how people cope with stress.
“The main message we both came away with was to ask how people are doing and to listen to their responses non-judgementally.”
Well done to the agents for thinking ahead. Nice to be part of a company who are looking after their employees well being.
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I commend this initiative and is very timely given Prince William’s announcement in Davos this week about the lack of support from big business for his Heads Together efforts. I am anxious whether such an important issue will resonate in any way with the the corporate physche in our industry.
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Brilliant news! Hats off to this inspired move. Agency is a series of often highly stressful highs and lows combined with dealing with members of the public who are going through highly stressful situations themselves.
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