Austerity: Why mental health training should remain a priority, especially in times of hardship. By Jane McNeice

I reall the recession of 2008-9 and my attempts to convince senior management teams that mental health training should be a top priority. This sat alongside efforts to influence General Practitioners and other health care practitioners to discuss return to work with their patients as part of mental health recovery and because work is extremely protective for our health. This was at a time when businesses were facing financial hardship, and their worries centred around preserving funds to pay the next wage bill. It was also a time when the training I was promoting often came with 50%-100% subsidy. Those days are long gone.

Yet here we are again, 2025, still with a strong evidence base for the health work relationship and once again experiencing volatility in the business world and financial pressures. My belief that mental health training should be a priority remains steadfast, though today I would add that it is needed more than ever. When the business economy struggles, we often see the wider impact on families, individuals, and communities. Health is impacted, and employers see increased absence, and increases in (the more costly) presenteeism (unless of course this is therapeutic presenteeism). The current economic and cost of living crisis is impacting everyone. For many they are experiencing, and hearing about mortgage interest rates, increased rental costs, and overall demands on the household budget.

Financial hardship and poverty, we know, impacts both our mental and physical health. The highest consequence for some is that it will cost them their lives. This being the case, it is essential that workplaces support the mental health and wellbeing of their workforce when faced with financial hardship. Financial return on this investment is positive. We know that “For every £1 spent by employers on mental health interventions they get £4.70 back in reduced absence, presenteeism, and staff turnover.” (2020 analysis by Deloitte). For some it will save their life, which is beyond quantifiable in my opinion.

Training helps by making sure managers are equipped and confident to support their own and their teams mental health, that messages and actions of support are visible throughout the organisation, and that individuals recognise their personal responsibilities in looking after their own mental health and wellbeing, as well as being able to support colleagues. Fostering a psychologically safe environment where employees feel comfortable discussing mental health, encouraging open communication, and destigmatising mental health issues, benefits all of us. Trained staff providing a supportive environment helps to reduce numbers of absences and resignations due to mental ill health. The workforce needs to be the strongest it can be to ensure it survives the financial adversity, and so that a strong workforce remains when we come out of recession. This includes workers who are paid, and workers who volunteer their time to provide social and community return. The investment remains imperative. Failure to do so impacts widely, including the next generation, our children, and their wellbeing. Health has to be the number one non-negotiable priority.

This does not necessarily mean diverting funds to training that need to be prioritised for wages. What it does mean is being resourceful and doing everything we can to ensure training and learning is used in the most cost-effective way…

• Can a small group of workers be trained, one or two, and cascade the learning to colleagues? Share notes from the training for example.
• Can we save costs on training new Mental Health First Aiders by ensuring that those who simply need a 4-hour (less costly) MHFA Refresher course, receive it before their qualification runs out at 3 years, so as not to incur the time and additional cost of repeating a full 2-day course, and thereby retaining MHFA capacity within the business.
• Are teams familiar with the health and wellbeing policies which exist, how to implement them, and if not, who is guiding them through these? Are key messages featured in newsletters, staff notice boards, flyers, and other internal communications, illustrated in ways everyone can understand? What health messages (covert and overt) are going out to the workforce.
• Do we have people in the organisation who are very experienced and can mentor colleagues, or ‘buddy’ them in their wellbeing learning?
• Are we making sure that we are using the free resources that many organisations offer? Mental Health awareness days and free resources for learning?
• Is your business one that can seek external funding to meet its training needs? Are you a non-profit organisation that could apply for grant funding for training?
• Are you a school or college that can now access the UK Government funding for senior mental health leads?
• Could training costs be supported through DWP Access to Work funding for those with long-term health issues and disabilities?
• And most important of all… Are we making sure that we evaluate any learning that does take place, ensuring it meets our desired outcomes. What are the measures, are we using the appropriate measuring tools, and are we interpreting the findings accurately?

What may be required of us at the moment, is to be more resourceful than we ever were. We may have less time and fewer financial resources, but we most definitely do not have less need. The need for mental health training is the greatest it has ever been, and it’s crucial that we act now to address it.