Wondering what you can do to support others' mental health when you're not the boss? Creative Director Jeremy Willmott from Paper Moose and Never Not Creative founder Andy Wright share practical advice on becoming a mental health champion in your workplace. From mental health first aid training to tapping into existing resources like R U OK? Day, discover how passionate individuals can drive meaningful change regardless of their job title. Perfect for creatives who want to make a difference but aren't sure where to start.
You don't need a fancy title or a corner office to champion mental health in your workplace. In fact, some of the most meaningful change happens when passionate individuals step up, regardless of their position on the org chart.
This question was answered by Jeremy Willmott – Creative Director at Paper Moose – who brings firsthand experience of implementing mental health initiatives in creative agencies. The conversation was hosted by Andy Wright, founder of Never Not Creative and CEO of Streamtime.
Jeremy emphasises that "there's so much more focus at the moment around mental health" and plenty of existing resources you can tap into. Rather than reinventing the wheel, look for established programmes like R U OK? Day, where you can become your organisation's champion.
"You can be the organisation's champion," Jeremy explains. "Seek out the information, talk about it, make it part of the agenda point for the agency to have that conversation, make it a big thing on R U OK? Day for example."
One of the most practical steps you can take is mental health first aid training. "Mental health first aid training is something that all agencies should have," Jeremy notes. "There should be a mental health first aid officer for every organisation."
Andy adds that this training goes beyond mental health conversations: "It's actually quite a good leadership course. Looking for signs and having the empathy to think about what somebody else might be going through means that you're not judging and you're not making assumptions about people."
Many larger agencies already have employee assistance programmes that you might not know about. Jeremy mentions tools like Sonda, which provides "lots of really useful tips and video guides on how to have good conversations around mental health" and connects employees with counsellors when needed.
Take time to investigate what support platforms your workplace already offers, then help spread awareness about them.
Andy mentions that Never Not Creative is working on activating mental health first aid trained people to deliver their peer support programme called Circles. This initiative creates safe spaces for creatives to share experiences and support each other through challenges.
"We're looking at getting those mental health first aiders to be able to deliver that program either in their own agencies or out in the creative community," Andy explains.
Remember, you don't need permission to care about your colleagues' wellbeing. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is simply notice when someone's struggling and approach them with genuine concern rather than judgement.
As Jeremy points out, having these conversations is now much more acceptable than it used to be, and "taking a mental health day is an acceptable sick day now, which is great." Your role might be helping to normalise these conversations even further.
Psychologist & cyberpsychology consultant who created Digital Nutrition, a framework for healthy tech habits. Champions mindful, sustainable tech use through speaking, writing & consulting.
Founder of Never Not Creative, CEO of Streamtime & co-chair of Mentally Healthy, driven to make the creative industry fairer & more human. Believes great work should never cost wellbeing.
