One in five of us will suffer from an episode of mental ill health and at any one time there are people in our community and around us and in our workplace that are unwell. People are more willing to talk about mental ill health in a way that we haven’t been able to in generations before us. I will draw on examples of being able to have better conversations with my children around what depression is and what anxiety is and support them in that way and that raising of awareness helps us as well in the workplace because we can have those conversations. It was very easy to come in from a weekend and say “I spent the weekend gardening and I’ve got a really so back” but no one would turn around and say “Look I’ve had a really tough weekend and I’m not feeling so well and on top of my game.” That’s becoming more commonplace and I think is appropriate in terms of that respect but in the same way that we would manage back pain we need to sort of understand how we manage our own mental ill health and what support we seek for that.
— Megan Clark, Associate Director, Wellbeing, Health and Safety, The University of Newcastle
Hear the interview on the Wellbeing podcast.