Working Minds: January 2025 news, updates and resources

Prepare to take part in the nation's biggest mental health conversation next month. 
Time to Talk Day is an annual awareness day held at the beginning of February. It’s one of the many opportunities through the year to start a conversation about mental health. 
Visit their campaign resources page, where you can download assets including:

• campaign calendar 2025
• one page summary of resources and support poster

Every conversation matters, big or small Anyone can experience mental health problems at some point in life. Anxiety and depression are the most common and responsible for over half of all ill-health at work. 
There are lots of ways you can get conversations going and they don’t always have to be formal. It could range anywhere between planning in a coffee catch-up with the whole team to holding a day of one-to-one meetings with staff members. 
It’s important to build supportive relationships where people feel comfortable to talk about any challenges they’re experiencing. 
Not sure what to say?   If you find talking about mental health and how people are feeling difficult, try using the Talking Toolkit to help structure conversations. 
The Toolkit guides you through each of the 6 mains causes of stress, how workers should feel in terms of coping with the demands of the job and provides practical ideas on how to improve things. 
If someone is struggling... If you think that a worker is having problems, encourage them to talk to someone. It could be a trusted colleague, their line manager, a trade union representative, GP, or occupational health team if they have access to one.
Managing mental health at work Although employers have a legal duty to protect employees from stress at work, diagnosing and treating stress isn’t their responsibility.
Employers have a responsibility to identify the risks of stress and act on them to improve conditions at work. That might mean making adjustments and helping someone manage a mental health problem at work.  
Find out more about the practical resources and support available: 

• Working Minds campaign website  

• employing disabled people and people with health conditions on GOV.UK. 

• employing people and workplace adjustments from the Equality and Human Rights Commission
  
  

Time to Talk Day is on 6 February and is run by the Working Minds campaign partner, Mind, as well as charity Rethink Mental Illness, in partnership with the Co-op.