Most companies mark the week.
Then nothing changes.
Mental Health Awareness Week happens every May. For most organisations, it ends on the Sunday. Here’s what that silence actually costs.
The numbers
What poor mental health is costing UK employers right now
964k
↑ 24% year-on-year
Workers affected by work-related stress, depression or anxiety
HSE 2024/25
22.1m
62% of all sick days
Working days lost to mental health conditions every year
HSE 2024/25
£51bn
↑ from £45bn in 2019
Annual cost of poor mental health to UK employers
Deloitte 2024
Awareness vs Action
The 2026 theme is “Action” for a reason
The Mental Health Foundation is asking organisations to stop talking and start doing. Here’s what that looks like in practice.
What most companies do
- Post a Mental Health Foundation graphic. Get 12 thumbs-up reactions. Move on.
- Run a lunchtime webinar. Half the team has a meeting clash. The rest multitask through it.
- Email a list of EAP resources. Nobody clicks. Nobody mentions it again.
- Monday the 19th arrives. Silence. The people who were struggling still are.
vs
What the best companies do
- Train managers to have real conversations
- Run an interactive session with follow-up built in
- Be honest about what support exists and what’s missing
- Use the week to launch an ongoing programme
“The team worked with us to tailor the training content to suit our people and delivered engaging sessions to help raise awareness of key wellbeing topics.”
Sweet Projects
For every £1 invested in workplace mental health, employers see an average return of £4.70
Deloitte 2024
There’s still time to make this year different
We help companies use Mental Health Awareness Week as the starting point for real, ongoing wellbeing training. Not a one-off. Not a tick-box.
Book a 30-minute call