Building a Culture that Supports Mental Health

In the years since I pub­lished Your Oxy­gen Mask First, I’ve been involved in many con­ver­sa­tions about men­tal health resilience, and how to cre­ate cul­tures that help peo­ple to thrive in good times and bad.

One of the most effec­tive tools is the Men­tal Health Con­tin­u­um mod­el, used by men­tal health asso­ci­a­tions around the world.

The essence of this easy, non-judge­men­tal colour-cod­ed mod­el, is to help peo­ple to assess their men­tal health and spot warn­ing signs quickly.

Green, Yel­low, Orange, Red

The best expla­na­tion of the mod­el came to me in a men­tal health course. If we sprained an ankle, we’d go to phys­io­ther­a­pist. If we broke an ankle, we’d go to a doc­tor or the hos­pi­tal to get it set. If we broke mul­ti­ple bones, we’d go to the ER for surgery and rehab to help us heal.

Each of those sit­u­a­tions relate to the dif­fer­ent inten­si­ty shifts we could have in our men­tal health, in increas­ing­ly chal­leng­ing sit­u­a­tions – from green to yel­low to orange to red.

But it’s just not as nat­ur­al a reflex for us to go to a brain doc­tor as it would be an ortho­pe­dic sur­geon when we break a bone.

A Com­mon Language

Many orga­ni­za­tions have adopt­ed the Men­tal Health Con­tin­u­um mod­el because it gives us a com­mon lan­guage and under­stand­ing of men­tal health on our well­be­ing and per­for­mance. It pro­vides the ground­ing to have a neu­tral con­ver­sa­tion, with­out dis­clos­ing the actu­al prob­lem, in case some­one wants pri­va­cy or is shy or proud.

You can say, ​“I think I might have slipped into the orange zone” so that peo­ple can pro­vide sup­port to help you get back into the green zone.

An exec­u­tive and I recent­ly talked about some­body in their com­pa­ny who was in a real­ly chal­leng­ing phase. When he said the per­son was in the red zone, we both knew what that meant, and could have a con­ver­sa­tion about how to help them.

In our own firm, we use the mod­el as part of our quar­ter­ly sur­veys, to check in on the team’s men­tal health, and to see how we can give and receive sup­port – and to cel­e­brate when things are going well.

It’s the best way I know to acknowl­edge and nor­mal­ize what can be sen­si­tive and com­pli­cat­ed issues in any company.

The Chal­lenge

• What can you do to make it eas­i­er for peo­ple to open­ly talk about and men­tal health and to get the assis­tance they need?

Resources

Your Oxy­gen Mask First. Here are links to two chap­ters you may find useful:

• Chap­ter 3 Dou­ble Your Resilience
• Chap­ter 7 Man­age Your Men­tal Health

Arti­cles

• Man­ag­ing Your Men­tal Health in Tur­bu­lent Times
• Tak­ing a Men­tal Health Break
• Is Men­tal & Emo­tion­al Health a Pri­or­i­ty in Your Boardroom?
• Teach Your Chil­dren Men­tal Resilience
• Get Mov­ing: The First Option to Treat Depres­sion & Anxiety

Assess­ment Tool

• Resilience Self-Assess­ment

9−8−8 hot­line for men­tal health and sui­cide pre­ven­tion support.

Free, 24 hours a day, sev­en days a week, 365 days a year. Trained cri­sis respon­ders will lis­ten to you and pro­vide sup­port with com­pas­sion, and a safe space to talk.

An inter­view with one of us who had a close call.