Using Notify, you can log an incident or near-miss in 90 seconds or less – or about the time it will take you to read this post.
In the first of our series of 90 Second Insights, Customer Acquisition Executive Paul Duff tells us about himself and why he’s passionate about raising awareness of mental health in the workplace.
What’s your key role at Notify? I work in the customer acquisitions team, responsible for accounts in the education, entertainment and leisure industries.
What do you love most about working at Notify? The people and atmosphere. One of our core values is to ‘support each other and our clients’. A lot of businesses try to execute a statement like this but struggle to see the results. It really is apparent at Notify in all areas and at all levels that supporting other team members and clients will only make the business prosper. Whether anyone has a work or personal problem they’d like to discuss, there is always time available to talk.
How did your interest in mental health in the workplace start? I was quite oblivious to mental health until the age of 17. It wasn’t a topic I’d learned about in school and wasn’t a conversation to be had down the pub with the lads either. I say “wasn’t” as I think the perception and taboo nature of MH has changed in the past few years – but that is a topic for another blog I think.
I didn’t really understand mental health until I suffered an acute anxiety episode which led to me taking time off both sixth form and work to recover. This is when I first began to learn about MH.
As part of my return to work with a previous employer, I worked with my line manager at the time, though I don’t believe they had directly managed anyone who had suffered from poor mental health before, so it was a learning curve for both of us.
Using what I had started to learn, I then took an interest in helping others who suffered and I was given the opportunity to become the retail lead for a campaign to raise awareness of mental health across the business and undertook Mental Health First Aid training.
I have since been given the opportunity to become Notify’s Mental Health First Aider and recently completed a 2 day course with Mental Health First Aid England and St John Ambulance.
What’s next for you in your role as Mental Health First Aider?
I will be looking to get a MHFA policy rolled out to the entire business. I want to use my knowledge and personal experience of mental health to try and help others around me. My experiences have certainly helped shape me into the person I am today.
Read more about the Notify team here.
