Headmasters introduce mental health first aiders

Headmasters have taken action and started a pioneering Mental Health First Aiders (MHFA) initiative with an aim to help stop the stigma that surrounds mental health and build a supportive culture for all stylists in the Headmasters workplace. Mental health in the UK is a huge issue, its estimated that 16 million people experience a mental health illness with 1 in 4 adults experiencing this each year.  Young people can be most at risk with up to 75% not receiving treatment.  Headmasters employs a number of young people, in fact up to 69% are under 30 years old and over 200 of them are apprentices (aged 16+). The MHFA training course taught in conjunction with MHFA England offers a safe place for apprentices and staff to make disclosures to the qualified Headmasters MHFA team.  This team have been trained to listen, reassure and respond, offering initial help and the tools to guide those suffering towards the support they need (Headmasters have a wide range of external professional contacts). Included in this are two senior consultants so that Headmasters can offer support on a wider scale to the whole company. Lauren Benjamin, head of apprentice education at Headmasters, explains “Working with over 200 apprentice aged 16+ we focus heavily on making sure our apprentices feel safe and happy whilst working at Headmasters as well as at the Academy.  We have always encouraged and promoted wellbeing conversations within the Academy environment and from that, we noticed that there has been an increase in the amount of apprentices that are facing difficulties or struggling with mental health issues.  I wanted our assessor team who teach our apprentices to be confident in approaching these conversations, be able to listen and offer the appropriate support or professional help if needed.” Raju Raymond CEO Headmasters explains “If people feel healthy and positive at work they will naturally be happier and more productive in the workplace, so everyone benefits. Personally they will maintain a steady income and feel productive and from a business perspective we retain our skilled team members. We have trained our managers to enable them to identify and support individual team members so they don’t feel isolated and alone. We take our duty of care towards staff very seriously and mental health is a top priority. ”