A key element of positive mental health in the workplace is the ability for organizations to respond quickly and effectively when members of your teams experience problems with their mental health – or when they face mental illness. Where nearly all employers fall short, however, is in addressing and ultimately eradicating the stigma still surrounding mental health and mental illness. The reason they fail to do so is rooted in their inability – or unwillingness – to recognize these four realities facing every employer today (during the presentation, I will share the data that backs each of these realities up): 1) Mental illness is common. 2) There is stigma in your workplace. 3) Stigma is costing you money. 4) There is something you can do about it. This last reality leads to our promise of the 6 steps you can take now to improve mental health in your workplace now. And it starts with this key truth: While mental illness can be treated, stigma can be cured. This may sound interesting, but how can you achieve all of this? The answer, in short, is training – because simply providing mental health awareness isn’t enough. Many organizations have improved their efforts to raise awareness and literacy surrounding mental health, however they are not reaping the full benefits that I will outline in this presentation. The reason is the stigma surrounding mental illness is a deeply rooted mindset, one which is reinforced on a daily basis by pop culture and the behaviour of the majority of those around us. In fact, stigma is a trap our society sets us up to fall into – and we don’t break free without highly specialized workplace-specific training designed for this exact purpose. Any training that will effectively improve mental health in your workplace must include the following the 6 steps that will be shared, along with actionable ways to apply them in your workplace now. Changing our understanding of the experience of mental illness is required before stigma can be eradicated. We can learn about the existence of mental illness all we want, but doing so won’t end stigma, nor will it make a significant improvement to the mental health of your organization. In the end you have the power to make this happen. As HR leaders, you have the ability to initiate a culture change that can have a significant and lasting positive impact on the mental health of everyone in your organization. In this session, you will learn not only the what and the why, but the how.