The Lord Mayor's Appeal Healthy City initiatives

Cite This

, (2019, September 30). The Lord Mayor’s Appeal Healthy City initiatives. Psychreg on Mind & Brain. https://www.psychreg.org/changing-attitudes-mental-health-well-being/

Reading Time: 2 minutes

This is Me is committed to changing attitudes around mental health and strives to create mentally inclusive workplaces by reducing stigma, dispelling myths, and improving employee wellbeing for good. It does this through three key strands which are:

This is Me Storytelling: Organisations encourage their employees to open the conversation around mental health by sharing their personal experiences, be of their own illness or of supporting a loved one. This is framed with other characteristics of the person so that mental ill-health feels like a part, rather than all, of that person.
The Green Ribbon: Organisations encourage their employees to wear green ribbons to raise awareness of mental ill-health and visibly show their support for ending the stigma around mental health.
Wellbeing in the Workplace: Organisations upskill their employees in having conversations about mental health. Using the Samaritans Listening Wheel, employees learn how to actively listen and increase their confidence in approaching someone who is in distress.

This is Me was initiated by Barclays and adopted by The Lord Mayor’s Appeal in 2016 given its success in opening conversations around mental health internally. With the convening power of the Lord Mayor, we were able to roll the campaign out across the City, replicating the good work that Barclays had done by shaping the campaign with the flexibility to apply to different sectors. Due to the success of the campaign within the City, it has now expanded across London, and the UK reaching more businesses and employees.

Over 700 UK organisations in total are registered for the This is Me campaign from a range of sectors including charities, hospitals, schools, civil service, law firms and banks. The initiative encourages employees who have experienced unmanageable stress and/or a mental health problem to share their story with colleagues, or share their experience of supporting a loved one.

The initiative has been hugely successful. Now in its fourth year, This is Me has already made a significant difference to both employers and employees who have joined the campaign. In a 2018 survey carried out by The Lord Mayor’s Appeal 100% of organisations said that This is Me had made a positive impact on changing attitudes towards mental health, the number of conversations around mental health, and dispelling the myths around mental health.

For Mental Health Awareness Week 2019 over 150,000 employees from 287 organisations across the country wore green ribbons as a show of solidarity, and 28 building were lit up green, including the Houses of Parliament, Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, No 10. Downing Street, Tate Britain and the Bank of England. For World Mental Health Day we are doing a blog tour and running the Green Ribbon campaign again.