Usdaw’s North West Equalities Committee has been very active in promoting and supporting action on Mental Health agenda to reps and members.  It began several years ago when a Mental Health seminar was organised in the division and proved very popular.  Since then and with Usdaw’s own campaign and increasing interest in the issue from employers, there is a huge interest in the topic from both reps and members and a demand to learn more.

The Deputy Divisional Office, Amanda Bailey-Coll was keen to explore what could be done to meet this demand. Although there are several very good Distance Learning courses available, Amanda wanted to develop a customised course which would give Usdaw reps and members the knowledge and skills to tackle the issue in the workplace.

Amanda said;

Mental Health is a big issue in the workplace. We need to give our reps the skills and knowledge to work alongside their management team to support staff in the workplace.”

With this brief, Equalities Officer, Karen Davies and Lifelong Learning Project Worker, Julia Baldwin met with the Trade Union Education Unit in Manchester to design and deliver a one-day training course at Usdaw’s National Training Centre in Warrington.  The college used some additional funding to run the course and those attending would receive a college certificate.  The course was specifically designed to meet the learning aims of the Union and was run three times over May and July.

It was called Mental Health Awareness and its broad aims were to enable people to identify hidden disabilities and the common signs and symptoms of poor mental health. It included a session on how to work with employers to tackle mental health in the workplace.  Participants were also able to plan further learning. A guest speaker from Usdaw’s Equality Forum was also in attendance to share their own experiences and the work that the forum does in the Division.

The course was promoted via Branches and promotion materials were sent to each Branch Secretary. It was open for both reps and member to apply for on a first come first served basis.  It was a great success and in total 69 reps and members attended.  The feedback was very positive and will be evaluated by the Equalities Committee and Education Department.  It is hoped that more and more of these bespoke courses can be delivered to meet the demand from the reps and members.

Karen said;

There has definitely been a need for this course and if we were to run the course alongside our main course programme for reps, I am certain that this will always be full” said Karen.

Brenda Shaw is a member of the Equalities Committee. She said;

It was absolutely amazing. People listened to all of the information that was briefed and really took notice. I am sure what they learnt will be valuable to them in the workplace.  People were even commenting on social media on how much they enjoyed the day.”

I am heavily involved in volunteering for Mind and Time to Change.  By me being able to speak at a training course on mental health gave me the opportunity to get the message out there to a wider audience so that they could in turn promote it in their own workplace.”