Mental Health Awareness Week 2025

This week is Mental Health Awareness Week. Mental health has commonly been referred to as a taboo subject, but this campaign helps to break the stigma of talking about mental health and promotes open conversations. In England, it’s estimated that about 1 in 4 of us will experience a mental health problem at some point each year¹. Research shows that adults are feeling lonelier, with 7.8% of adults in the UK feeling lonely ‘always or often’ in 2024². These statistics highlight the importance of mental health support, whether that is support from your GP, community or workplace.

This year’s mental health awareness week campaign theme is ‘Community’ which aims to highlight the importance of having people around you to talk to. Communities connect and support us, giving us a sense of belonging and purpose. For example, a workplace can be a community and ensuring employees are supported with their mental health in the workplace is fundamental. In 2022, mental health was the 5th most common reason given for sickness absence, accounting for 7.9% of occurrences³.

At CAN, we ensure that we are always supporting our employees. Last year, we hosted a number of initiatives that aimed to improve mental wellbeing in the workplace. In June, we hosted a self-care meditation session, in October and on World Mental Health Day, we hosted a ‘Tea&Talk’ event where employees met for some tea and cake and had the opportunity to have open conversations about mental health and what other things that we, as a company, can do to support, which was incredibly insightful. We also have mental health first aiders on-site who are available to provide support to anyone who needs it.

This year, to commemorate Mental Health Awareness Week, we sent out a number of resources to our employees on mental health topics, including helplines and recommended apps (some of which are a part of our benefit scheme). We also participated in ‘Wear it Green’ Day, where we encouraged our employees to wear Green to show their support and raise awareness of this campaign.

As a company, we pride ourselves on the support we give to our employees, but we are always working on ways in which we can continuously improve.

1. McManus S., Bebbington P., Jenkins R. and Brugha T. (2016) Mental health and wellbeing in England: Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2014. Available from: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/adult-psychiatric-morbidity-survey/adult-psychiatric-morbidity-survey-survey-of-mental-health-and-wellbeing-england-2014
2. (2024a) UK measures of national well-being dashboard. Available from: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/articles/ukmeasuresofnationalwellbeing/dashboard
3. Office for National Statistics (ONS), released 26 April 2023, ONS website, article, https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/labourproductivity/articles/sicknessabsenceinthelabourmarket/2022