Mental Health Awareness Days in 2024 - A Guide for Employers
Talking about mental health normalises what has traditionally been a taboo subject, especially in the workplace. Your team may not be comfortable sharing their thoughts at work, but research has found that 87% of employees are having these conversations more openly after the Covid-19 pandemic. Acknowledging the importance of good mental health through awareness days opens up room for discussion and can help them feel less alone with whatever they’re going through in their life.
You don’t need to wait for a specific day every year to have these conversations with your employees. Awareness is a critical step in the journey for businesses to better support their team, and choosing any mental health awareness days in 2024 is a great vehicle to do this.
However these awareness initiatives must never be a plaster or surface-level appearance initiative, masking a lack of actual support. Taking meaningful action to create long term change is essential - such as creating a positive workplace culture that promotes psychological safe spaces, provides educational resources and a comprehensive benefits plan with always-on mental health support. From there, any awareness days you choose to highlight should be an additional opportunity to educate and inform your employees.
So if you’re wondering what the important dates for mental health in 2024 are, here are the top days to plan ahead for and put in the calendar now.
Time to Talk Day - 1 February 2024
Coming out the other side of the holiday season and into the darkest, dreariest months of the year can take a toll on everyone. Organised by leading mental health charities MIND UK and Rethink Mental Illness, Time to Talk Day encourages people of all ages and backgrounds to be more open about their mental health. Activities like checking in with a friend, having a coffee break with some coworkers outside of the office, or even texting a colleague to see how their day is going are all encouraged.
Children’s Mental Health Week - 5-11 February 2024
Learning the tools to support mental health at a young age can have a significant impact once those children and young people move into adulthood. This week is dedicated to empowering the youngest members of our communities to take control over their mental health and become more informed about resources available to them.
For the parents and caregivers on your team, this week can be a great opportunity to educate them on how best to support the children they care for. How adults talk about their own mental health around children can have a significant impact on how those children grow up to view their mental wellbeing. By providing resources to help your employees, you’ll be supporting the mental health of generations to come.
Random Acts of Kindness Day - 17 February 2024
This day is all about taking a small step to make someone else’s day better. Research shows that kindness can help reduce stress, bring new perspectives to conversations, and deepen relationships. It creates a sense of belonging and reduces feelings of isolation—even something as simple as a kind interaction between strangers makes a positive impact.
Random Acts of Kindness Day is perfect for showing some love and appreciation for both the people you know and strangers, all without expectation of reciprocation. It’s also a good opportunity to show kindness to yourself. Building your own self esteem through acts of self-love and care can improve your confidence and optimism, giving you a brighter outlook towards the future.
International Women’s Day - 8 March 2024
International Women’s Day is a date that every company should have on their mental health awareness calendar in 2024. Traditionally a day to honour progress made in women’s rights and gender equality, it’s also an opportunity to acknowledge ongoing issues that women around the world face.
This is a good opportunity to promote psychological support to the women in your organisation. Women tend to internalise distress and as a result have higher rates of anxiety and depression than men. By promoting self-worth, self-esteem, and mental wellbeing for all the women in your team, as well as providing resources to preventatively manage stress triggers, this celebratory day can also be a useful tool for meaningful action.
World Sleep Day - 15 March 2024
We all know how difficult work can be after a bad night of sleep. Without enough, your cognitive abilities can decline, making it harder to think critically, be creative, and make good decisions. The amount of sleep and the quality of that sleep is essential for building a strong foundation of wellbeing - it’s fundamental for body restoration, memory consolidation and metabolic health. So how can this single annual day help individuals in your company to sleep better?
The science of sleep is fascinating, and as something that will affect each individual in your team, it’s guaranteed to be a popular topic. You can provide real value with educational resources that speak to individual needs. As part of our comprehensive corporate wellbeing platform, we provide expert-led guidance around sleep that your team can access live or on-demand as part of their personalised health journey. Highlighting these features on World Sleep Day allows employees to find the sleep-focused training and resources that work best for them.
Stress Awareness Month - April 2024
Throughout the month of April, companies around the UK acknowledge and provide resources dedicated to ending the stress epidemic in the workplace. This is the time to discuss the bigger picture of the impact of stress on physical and mental wellbeing, along with raising awareness of the tools you have available to preventatively manage stress every day.
An important month in the awareness calendar is Stress Awareness Month. What causes us stress, and how we experience stress, may vary from person to person, but whatever stress means to us, we can all recall times when demands piled on. We can all identify with the negative consequences; from fatigue to overwhelm, anxiety to poor decision making.
When stress is felt regularly, what are usually good warning signs can become masked or normalised, and that’s when stress can become chronic and lead to burnout. Our own research has shown that over a third of employees (38%) experience chronic stress everyday.
Stress Awareness Month gives your business an opportunity to encourage open and honest dialogue about workplace stress, to educate employees on the difference between good stress and bad stress, and how to spot the signs before stress becomes chronic.
“The pace of work has accelerated…resulting in increased stress levels. Businesses that invest in helping people gain more control of their day…will make a difference. They will reduce stress levels and in turn increase the quality of output.”
Christopher Mills, Executive Coach and Partner at Schillings (Whitepaper)
World Health Day - 7 April 2024
This annual event is organised by the World Health Organisation, held every year since its founding in 1948. Each year has a new public health issue focus, with 2024’s being “my health, my right.” The goal for 2024 is to champion rights to healthcare, safe drinking water, nutrition, and freedom from medical discrimination.
Mental Health Awareness Week - 13 to 19 May 2024
One of the biggest days on the UK mental health calendar in 2024 is mental health awareness week in the middle of May. Sponsored by the Mental Health Foundation, this week aims to educate the public on a range of mental health issues that impact people throughout the UK.
Tackling the stigma around mental health issues is one of the most important educational elements of this week each year, on both a personal and individual level, and within wider communications such as the media and government.
Significant policy changes, along with necessary funding for a range of mental health charities throughout the UK, have all been seen as a result of the action taken during Mental Health Awareness Week in past years.
This year’s theme is “Movement: Moving more for mental health”. Company activities that tie into this year’s theme could include:
- Taking part in a sponsored walk as a business
- Setting a steps challenge for the week with prizes for most improved or highest number of steps completed
- Company wellbeing initiatives like yoga, pilates, or other movement-based activities in the office
- Discussions around the barriers that people may face doing physical activity when trying to manage a mental illness
World Suicide Prevention Day - 10 September 2024
Every September, World Suicide Prevention Day is an opportunity to better understand the causes of suicide around the world and commit to taking action for those impacted. Advocating for the identification and prevention of suicidal behaviour, funding for mental health treatment programs, and providing ongoing care and support for those who have experienced suicidal thoughts or actions are all important aspects of this day.
World Mental Health Day - 10th October 2024
This is one of the top mental health awareness days to put on the calendar. Discussions around awareness and positive changes to global mental health are held every October on World Mental Health Day, organised by the United Nations and World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH). Wondering what the theme for Mental Health Awareness Day is this year? 2024’s theme is yet to be announced, but previous years have been “let’s talk about mental health” and “make mental health a global priority.”
For businesses, the emphasis on this day should be on how companies can better navigate the emotional and psychological needs of the modern worker, with resources and education provided that outline what the business currently offers in terms of wellbeing benefits for employees.
This is particularly important in promoting options employees have available to them year-round, not only on this specific awareness day. A health platform like WONE helps employees preventatively address burnout by reducing their stress with micro moments of recovery throughout the day.
Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month (Movember) - November 2024
Movember may be more commonly associated with facial hair growing contests for prostate cancer awareness. But the whole month of November is dedicated to men’s health, and that includes mental wellbeing.
Campaigns throughout this month focus around the specific issues men often have regarding their mental health, such as fear of speaking up and sharing emotions or feelings openly with friends, family, or coworkers.
National Stress Awareness Day - 2 November 2024
Although the month of April is dedicated to stress awareness, this specific day in November highlights issues of wellbeing and stress more broadly throughout the UK. The end of the year and shift into the winter months can be a difficult time for many people, so National Stress Awareness Day is an excellent chance to remind employees of the company initiatives in place for managing stressful situations, both short term and long term.
Activities to do on mental health awareness days
With so many awareness days throughout the year, there are plenty of opportunities to educate and inform your team of the best ways to take care of their mental health on an ongoing basis.
Along with providing resources and helpful information to support them, awareness days offer a chance for incorporating unique activities into your employees’ schedules, giving them time out of their day to relax, get to know their coworkers, and dedicate some time to their mental health.
Some of the activities that you could think about hosting include:
- Tea Talks: having a dedicated tea or coffee break for employees in a lunch-and-learn style setting, where resources can be shared and open discussions can be had in a safe and welcoming environment.
- Classes and educational sessions: gaining a better understanding of key topics like nutrition, fitness, and sleep can help employees feel better equipped to manage their own mental health. At WONE, our experts provide live and on-demand teaching and training to support your team in personalised ways using AI and biometric data to give them a custom experience with the platform.
- Team fundraisers: internal events to raise money for mental health organisations and charities. These could be sales team competitions, Scrum sprints for the project management team, or more general fundraisers like change collection pots.
- Recognition awards: highlighting members of the team who consistently go above and beyond to support the mental wellbeing of others in the company.
Take action today and help solve the stress epidemic
In recent years, employers have come to understand that a happier and healthy workforce is a more productive one. By partnering with experts from health, science, and beyond, we offer an employee wellbeing platform that helps you tackle the root cause of stress and burnout before your team is negatively impacted.
We’re led by academic and clinical excellence, alongside leading-edge research that’s focused on supporting the entire wellbeing, from mental health to physical and nutritional health. Our comprehensive program for the modern workplace integrates with employee calendars to provide micro moments of recovery and stress reduction throughout the day.
Work with us to solve the stress epidemic in the UK workforce, now and throughout the year.