Background

I am a qualified Mental Health First Aider and I first undertook this certification in November 2020. I firmly believe that every organisation should have a mental health first aider just as they have regular first aiders, but mental health is often still stigmatised in many organisations.

I chose Thrive Mental Health and Neurodiversity to do my mental health first aider training with, and through this I got to know Simon Nichols, the Managing Director of Thrive. To keep my mental health first aider certification up to date I undertook a refresher course with Thrive in early January 2022, and at the same time Simon asked me if I would be interested in delivering a lunchtime webinar for Thrive.

Mental health is very close to my heart, I have had anxiety and depression on and off throughout my life, a recent diagnosis of BPD traits and ADHD, as well as a giagnosis of autism prior to this, so I am as neurodiverse as they come. I agreed to doing a webinar for Thrive and booked a call with Simon Nichols to talk about potential topics/themes for the webinar.

During the call Simon and I settled on “Different Voices, Different Perspectives: The Importance of Neuroinclusion in the Workplace” as the theme for the webinar. I know from my own experience that I struggle to fit into an office environment, and organisations often miss out on exceptional talent because they don’t understand the benefits that employing those who are neurodiverse can bring. By making a few small and simple changes to help neurodiverse individuals thrive at work this can help them massively; however, there is no one size fits all approach and organisations need to consider the needs of those who are neurodiverse on an individual basis.