Destigmatizing talking about mental health in the workplace

In a recent webinar hosted by HRD Connect and Burlingame, CA-based Lyra Health, business leaders discussed mental health in 2022, forecasting trends and creating proactive strategies. Moderated by Janine Nicole Dennis, owner and chief innovations officer at New York-based Talent Think Innovations, LLC, the nearly 60-minute discussion included Arielle Trzcinski, director of product marketing at Lyra Health, and Laura DeCook, wellbeing specialist at Seattle-based Expedia Group.

At the end of the webinar, Trzcinski and DeCook answered viewer questions. The following is an edited and condensed account.

How do you encourage colleagues to engage in mental health resources?

DeCook: “I consistently remind people what we have available. I go into our different Slack channels to remind employees and our leadership even sends emails with reminders of our resources. In addition, we send weekly newsletters where we bring people back to our website’s wellbeing hub. Every month there’s a new topic, such as ‘Gratitude’ or ‘New Year, New Beginnings.’ We have everything in one place, so employees just click on one link to get all these resources. They know they can always reach out to the mental health ambassador team, as well.”

Trzcinski: “Internally, we benefit from having access to Lyra, which is amazing. I also make sure I’m open and talk about mental health regularly, so it becomes more normalized. (I hate that word ‘normal.’) I let people know I engaged with my coach and here are some recommended resources. When partnering with customers, we also do a lot of targeted marketing to destigmatize mental health, to make sure folks know how to talk about it and what to look for.”