Mental health at work with Camille Wilson

Equality Talks is a podcast sponsored by WORK180. You can find the original version here.

From her own lived experience of severe mental health issues from a young age, Camille Wilson truly understands what mental health can impose on an individual’s life.

Camille has studied a Bachelor in Psychology at UNSW and is part of the postgraduate program at the Brain and Mind Centre at USYD. She has always been fascinated by how our brains create unique behaviours and thinking that affect us individually and as a collective.

Alongside her psychology studies, Camille has worked in human resources, gaining insight into how we currently handle mental health in the workplace. In 2017, Camille founded Grow Together Now, a social enterprise with the mission to change the way we see mental health in Australian workplaces and schools, based on three core skills: being aware, being courageous, and being real.

In this episode we discuss:

• Grow Together Now, a social enterprise with a mission to change how mental health is seen in the workforce.
• Camille’s mental illness journey that led her to found GTN.
• The perspective gap between those experiencing mental health and those managing it on behalf of an employer.
• The mental health continuum that we move along during our life.
• Mental health programs at work tend to focus on wellbeing programs for people with good mental health, and the acute end of poor mental health such as EAP services.
• There is a gap in the middle for almost 50% of people, who are not in crisis but are also not thriving.
• Things to consider, including flex policy, work health and safety, the workplace environment and culture, and leadership buy in.
• Leadership teams define the culture and psychological safety of a workplace.
• Psychological Safety exists when people feel safe at work.
• How to manage your emotional response to stressful events, which is a good indicator of mental health management.
• Understanding how our brains work as a pathway to changing responses to stress.
• The challenge of leadership buy in if they have no lived experience of mental health issues.
• The moments that matter – noticing our mental health is waning, asking someone else if they’re ok, and responding that you need help.
• Absenteeism as an indicator for the mental health of your workforce.
• The key activities someone who’s not thriving could do to support their mental health.
• The impact of exercise, sleep and diet on mental health.
• How common and normal it is to have mental health issues.

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Love this Podcast so much that you can’t wait to listen to another? Check out our special bonus episode to close out Season Two of Equality Talks: Bonus Episode: The superannuation gender gap with Sangeeta Venkatesan

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