THE BRITISH LIBRARY MARKS MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS MONTH

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. At the British Library, we took this opportunity to share information about the wide range of support and advice available to our staff.

Mental Health First Aiders - We have a team of Mental Health First Aiders. These are Library colleagues at our sites in Boston Spa and St Pancras who are available during working hours to provide support if you are concerned about your mental health. You do not need to be in crisis to speak to one of our MHFAs.

Peer Buddies - From time to time people need someone they can talk to from outside their teams and not necessarily a close friend. The Peer Buddies group was formed following a suggestion made at one of our Health & Wellbeing Focus Groups. They are:

• An informal way of letting people discuss any work problems they might have or just simply somebody to have a chat with who understands the Library culture
• Not formally trained they are just a group of individuals who want to help people in whatever way they can but mostly by listening
• There to listen to your concerns
• There to offer a sympathetic ear

Staff Networks - our staff networks are inclusive, social, and for staff by staff. They exist to break down barriers and raise awareness of relevant issues through engagement, advocacy, and consultation. They offer support, advice, development, empowerment and community.

Wellbeing activities - We offer a programme of wellbeing activities for colleagues at Boston Spa and St Pancras. Depending on availability, you can sign up for sessions of Pilates, yoga, massages, osteopathy and online desk
stretch exercise.

Employee Assistance Programme - we have the Library’s Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) where we offer the services of counsellors at Boston Spa and St Pancras currently via phone call or via Microsoft Teams –
as well as 24/7 support available both online and via phone.
They also provide a monthly newsletter with May’s being dedicated to Mental Health at Work Week. The newsletter contains a huge amount of useful information such as:

• Mental Health at home
• Mental Health at work
• Mental Health in the wider community.

Medicash support - All British Library employees can benefit from an additional health and wellbeing benefits package provided by Medicash.
mProve Yourself available on the Medicash app has over 50 hours of mindfulness and meditation courses, mental health wellbeing tools and a range of yoga and wellbeing exercises, mProve Yourself is a hub for both mental and physical wellbeing.

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