World Mental Health Day is an initiative that raises awareness of mental health across the globe. This annual event campaigns against stigma and discrimination relating to mental health issues. What’s more, World Mental Health Day advocates action, guiding people towards the support and assistance they may need. At Varn we believe it’s an important date in the calendar.

As a company we recognise mental health is a serious consideration within our workplace and that taking as many steps as we can to help positively manage mental health is beneficial to everybody in our team. As the mental health charity Mind puts it on its website, “If you look after your employees’ mental wellbeing, then levels of engagement will rise and so will staff morale and loyalty, innovation, productivity and profits.” This is a statement that Varn fully subscribes to.

To mark 2023’s World Mental Day, which this year falls on October 10, we have invited Katie from the excellent Noue Yoga to the Varn offices to run a desk yoga session. It’s an activity that members of the team are looking forward to with varying degrees of excitement and trepidation. Yoga is acknowledged as being good for relaxation, and research studies also reveal that it is effective both as a stress-buster and a mood-enhancer. Katie has promised to explore a number of mindful movements and breath-work techniques with us that will be sure to give our mental wellbeing a welcome boost. This year Varn has also offered an annual subscription to the mediation app Headspace to all members of the team looking for a mindfulness uplift.

Mental health is clearly an all-year round concern and at Varn we are committed to creating an environment where mental health issues can be openly discussed. As our Managing Director Tom Vaughton explains:

“A full-time employee can spend up to 70% of the day that they are awake either at work, travelling to/from work or thinking about work. It is, therefore, imperative that all managers look at time and money spent on wellbeing and mental health as not only an investment but also the right thing to do. Your work impacts your life for better or for worse. In the past, employees have been lazy and have not wanted to take responsibility for their team’s physical and mental health. This shouldn’t be the case in 2023!”

To this end, the company possesses a mental health policy that outlines the company’s provisions to prevent and address mental health issues within the Varn team. To back this up, if necessary, we will also provide a Reasonable Adjustment Passport for any of our team who are suffering from poor mental health.

On top of those safeguards, we have two members of the Varn team who have completed the Mental Health First Aider qualification, courtesy of the St Johns Ambulance, and are available to colleagues for raising issues and signposting to support. The company also provides an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) that includes confidential health assessments, counselling and a 24-hour hotline for personal crises.

To sum up, we take mental health in the workplace seriously at Varn, and are very happy to find time to celebrate an important initiative as World Mental Health Day. As a company we wish good mental health and wellbeing to all.

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