Norfolk Network stories

Tying in with World Mental Health Day today, regional law firm Ashtons Legal has recently launched Ashtons’ Legal Mental Health First Aid programme. Consisting of internal training and support for all staff and partners, it underpins its commitment to good mental health in the workplace and an open and honest culture.

This initiative forms part of the firm’s well-established Health and Wellbeing support and enhances the commitment to its staff’s welfare and core values, being an employer of choice and aiming to improve the lives of those it interacts with. Senior associate Joanne Briscoe, who had a previous career as a registered mental health nurse, is an accredited national Mental Health First Aid Trainer and will be facilitating and managing the initiative.

Joanne recently trained a number of staff volunteers from each of Ashtons’ four offices who will engage with staff as Mental Health First Aiders (MHFAs) where appropriate. Participants learned how to identify stress triggers, tips on personal resilience and ways in which they can offer an immediate line of support for anyone at work who is struggling with mental health issues, either with factors causing stress and anxiety in the workplace, or with personal circumstances which impact whilst they are at work.

This year’s World Mental Health Day theme, which is set by the World Federation for Mental Health, is suicide prevention. Ashtons knows only too well the impact suicide can have as it acts for many families of grieving relatives who have taken their own lives.

www.ashtonslegal.co.uk