Mental Health Matters

A couple of weeks ago we had a call with mental health charity, Chris’s House, founder Anne Rowan to learn more about their story and what they can do to help people who are in need of support. November was Men’s Mental Health Month so this felt like a good time to introduce a mental health charity directly to our people. Our company is made up of predominantly males therefore we felt it was important to ensure our people know there are organisations out there to go to when they need support and/or just someone to talk to.

Chris’s House stands for ‘Centre of Help, Response and Intervention Surrounding Suicide’, and was set up to offer a safe environment for people who are in, or approaching, a suicidal crisis to and get professional support. The charity was founded by Anne Rowan, who sadly lost her son to suicide. She aimed to establish a crisis centre in her son’s name to help other people who may be in a similar situation as he was. They now have over 60 trained volunteers from all walks of life, aiming to assist and support those in need.

At SA we put an emphasis on promoting positive mental health and wellbeing by implementing our own Wellness Wednesdays bi-weekly where we hold events such as meditation, yoga and sometimes a workout or two. We also have two trained mental health first aiders in our company who hold mental health drop-in sessions every Wednesday for our people to talk to someone they are familiar with and share their thoughts. These have been popular so far and we intend on keeping them up.