Leadership Mental Health Essentials

Description

Supervisor / Manager Mental Health Essentials is a live, skills‑based workshop that turns managers into confident, psychologically informed leaders who can recognize distress, respond supportively, and shape healthier team environments without becoming “armchair therapists.” It starts from a simple reality: managers have an outsized impact on employee mental health—recent surveys suggest their influence rivals that of clinicians and close partners—yet most managers report feeling unprepared, anxious, or unsure about what to say or do when someone on their team is struggling. This workshop demystifies the role, gives managers clear boundaries, and equips them with language, frameworks, and practical tools they can use immediately.​

The program is grounded in growing evidence that manager mental‑health training improves employees’ well‑being, reduces stress and burnout, and can even lower turnover intentions. A recent framework on Mental Health Supportive Supervisor Behaviours (MHSSB) identifies six core behaviours—emotional support, practical support, role modeling, stigma reduction, early‑warning recognition, and early‑warning response—that managers can learn and practice to protect and promote team mental health. This workshop operationalizes those behaviours with realistic workplace examples and guided practice, so managers leave knowing exactly what supportive leadership looks and sounds like in their context.​

Critically, the workshop treats mental health as both an individual and structural issue. Managers learn how their everyday decisions about workload, priorities, flexibility, communication, and recognition can either reduce or amplify psychosocial risk factors such as high demands, low control, and low support. They are shown how to work within organizational policies, benefits, and the OMEM Program pillars (safety, burnout prevention, emotional skills, mental health literacy) to align their leadership with a psychologically healthy and safe workplace, rather than shouldering the burden alone.

What this Workshop Covers

• The supervisor’s role in supporting mental health of employees
• Mental health literacy for supervisors
• Conversations and supportive behaviours
• Building a mentally healthy team environment

Facilitation

• 2.5 hours
• Live Online