At the age of 11, I learned my mother suffered from manic depression. Today, 30 years later,
we call it bipolar disorder but however you’d like to call it: she struggled
tremendously with her mental health.
She still does.
Over the years I
have seen a dramatic change in the way we talk about mental health. Growing up
in a small town where everyone tried to hide their struggles, my mum was a bit
of an uncomfortable exception. She never tried to hide how she felt. She
thought it was important not to look away from pain. From the psych ward she
would send me brochures about her disorder. And she would ask her psychiatrist
to explain her disorder to me.
At the age of 11 that was a lot to take in. But as an adult, I am so glad she did.
At the age of 11 that was a lot to take in. But as an adult, I am so glad she did.
Because it taught
me how to have conversations about mental health. And how to recognize the
signs.
It doesn’t really
matter who you are. Your size and shape, or gender. Mental illness doesn’t care
and it affects 1 in 4 of us at some point in life. What does matter, however,
is that most of us are not very good at spotting the signs and even worse at
knowing how to have the conversation when we do see them.
That is why working
around the subject of Mental Health feels like such good use of our professional role-play actors.
Those that know of InterACT’s work, know that we believe that lasting
change is brought about through what we call ‘Role Play Based Learning’. And it offers a different approach to learning how to address mental health in the workplace.
How does it work?
For our Mental Health Programs we take our participants through 3 confrontational stages:
How does it work?
For our Mental Health Programs we take our participants through 3 confrontational stages:
Stage 1. Recognize
it
Stage 2. Acknowledge
it
Stage 3. Adjust it
When we are in front of our audience we start with Recognize it. Using very careful
researched case study, our actors play out a scenario that holds up a mirror to
the current culture around Mental Health so the audience connects with what
they see. They see themselves in that mirror and recognize the behavior of
others.
Once you have that recognition, delegates are willing to Acknowledge it: to take personal responsibility for change.
Then we talk about Adjust it. What are people actually going to do? What are they willing to commit to?
Once you have that recognition, delegates are willing to Acknowledge it: to take personal responsibility for change.
Then we talk about Adjust it. What are people actually going to do? What are they willing to commit to?
Finally, how do you
make sure you have a culture where it’s ok to have a conversation about mental
health? So that it becomes ‘what we do around here’?
I have to say, in
this program, whilst we garner that recognition – recognition of a very
difficult subject – the most powerful, moving part isn’t our actors. It’s the
disclosures that come from delegates themselves. It’s when they, of their own
volition, stand up in front of everyone and say ‘this happened to me’, ‘it
happened to me here’, ‘I’m back now, but there are many that aren’t’, ‘please
don’t let this ever happen again’.
Have I got a magic
wand for you? Nope.
Do we clear our clients of all mental health issues? Not even close.
Is there a book you can read? Maybe.
Do we clear our clients of all mental health issues? Not even close.
Is there a book you can read? Maybe.
What everyone does agree to after our programs is to watch for the signs. Changes in behavior, going early, coming late, changes in mood, performance; anything that’s ‘not like them’. And they agree that doing nothing is not an option. They agree to ‘have the conversation’ – just like my mum decided to have the conversation.
Even if it does go
a bit wrong or feels awkward (and it probably will), it can’t possibly be worse
then the consequences of doing nothing.
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