Mental Health Matters

Richmal Midllesworth (She/Her) is the head of HR at an established London-based architecture studio. Her modern approach to HR had her labelled as an HR Rebel. The following lines are a transcript of one of her recent vlogs. The names have been changed for privacy purposes.

‘Good morning everyone. So I’m just capping off a 10 mile run around the villages in Hertfordshire where I live. As you know, I’m raising funds and awareness for mental health, in particular men for the Winston Smith foundation.

And what I thought I’d do today is I’d take a minute to talk to you about getting access to mental health support because – uhm – in my role and with some of my friends and family, I hear a lot of people say to me – well, I did try and go and get some help, but I felt that they didn’t really understand me or they made some comment that, really, I didn’t connect with; I didn’t feel validated.

And what I want to say to you is that these things do happen. No one’s perfect and even professional people sometimes come across as off or might make a comment that really does cause some emotional harm. So all I can say to you is ‘just keep trying’. Not with that person, not with that entity. Go and find something else. Because getting mental health support is not one-size-fits-all, it’s one size fits one. So approach it with some curiosity and keep trying different things.

Something else that springs to mind a lot as well that I hear about is that there’s such a massive delay for getting help by the NHS and via these services that are free to people, especially for young people that are struggling with their mental health, and the waiting list to get counselling and therapies is really long and that’s quite a worry for me, considering how many people really are now becoming more engaged with looking after their mental health.

So the other day, my other half shared an email with me about a little app; it’s called Woebot and it is a cognitive behavioural therapy-based program in the form of artificial intelligence called Woebot. And I’ve been playing around with Woebot this week, I’ve been checking in, I’v’e been testing Woebot out and I can highly, highly recommend it.

What I will do is I will put a link to Woebot on this video after I’ve posted it, but it’s got quite a cute nature, so it will put a smile on your face. I think that it’s accessible for young people, as well as adults, and I think that it’s something that you should be aware of and you should try it out. Partly what it does is it gives you tools, it will give you videos, it gives you ideas about mindfulness, how to practice gratitude, journaling, which is also very good for mental health, and it does give you some techniques if you’re in the middle of a crisis or a negative thought cycle, you open up the app, you check in and it’s available for you immediately.

It finished its conversation with me last night to tell me it was off going fishing, so it does have a cute little personality as well, so I can highly recommend it. So that’s what I just wanted to say today, it’s just ‘stay curious, look after your mental health and if you do find you’ve hit an avenue where you don’t think you’re being validated or the person you’re talking to isn’t connecting with you, then it’s okay to end that and start looking for something different.

So thank you for your time, I’ve got about a mile to go and then I’ll finish off my 10 miles. So I’ll post all this a bit later on, but just wanted to say ‘take care, everyone’. Thanks!’

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