The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 19

Mental
Health
Ment
WHAT'S NEW
SHIFTING TO A
GROWTH MINDSET
Mark Henick
Mental Health Advocate
& Strategist
E
arlier this year we launched a
Keynote Speaker Series featuring
today's top thought leaders across
different categories-Mental Health
& Wellness; Marketing, Innovation
& Disruption; and Equality, Diversity
& Inclusion. We've been chatting with a few
of them on the themes of our magazine. For
this issue we spoke with Mark Henick, Mental
Health Advocate & Strategist.
What changes when employers recognize
mental health?
We have some incredible people, companies,
employers and individuals who are way out
front in terms of advancing mental health
issues in the workplace. The pandemic
really supercharged this change of
adopting a growth mindset when it comes
to psychological health and safety in the
workplace. It showed people at all levels
what it's like to feel isolated and lonely, which
creates a shared struggle and common bond.
If everyone knows that mental health is
important except for the CEO, nothing's going
to change-you need the ground level push
including top-level leadership. Employees have
now seen the CEO at their kitchen table, with
their cat, and it's torn down those barriers
that kept executives at arm's length from the
struggles their employees were facing. It's
made it personal in an effective way.
What's your advice for people who have trouble
speaking up about their mental health?
Speaking up, especially when it's hard, is a radical
act of self-love. Like anything else that you don't yet
know how to do, if it's hard, it means you need to
do it more. I've been speaking about mental health
for 20 years, and there are still things that make
me super uncomfortable to talk about. When I feel
that discomfort, I've trained myself to go toward
it instead of running away from it. That's really a
fundamental shift to a growth mindset.
Have you seen many changes within the mental
health community because of the pandemic?
The mental health conversation was becoming
more prominent pre pandemic. But then
along comes Covid and it just shoves mental
health right onto center stage. It's shifted the
conversation-employers have realized that
mental health services are essential parts
of their business, not only because it's the
right thing to do but because it's good for
business and the case is pretty conclusive.
This has really increased demand and further
articulated the range of mental health services
that are available. The virtual health space in
particular-those trends will continue as more
commercialization comes to the mental health
space. We'll need to diligently pay attention to
quality as that happens.
The next wave in the mental health space is
paying attention to quality among the types of
services people need and matching the level of
help with the level of expertise or the approach
of the professional. It's been the source of
most of our systemic issues where we're
broadly saying the mentally ill in the singular as
though everybody with any of the thousands
of iterations of mental illness are the exact
same. There are a range of mental healthcare
providers with varying approaches to help very
different issues. Mental health providers need to
better clarify what they do, and employers and
individuals need to appreciate that. It's going to
take a while to help educate people, but I think
we're getting there.
With Ontario gradually opening up, there might
be fear around going back to work-how should
people deal with that?
The idea of re-entry anxiety has gotten quite
a bit of press recently. There's a real benefit,
at least here in Toronto where I'm located,
of moving into stage three and restrictions
loosening up over the summer while cases
are generally lower, to get out and do things.
We're going to have to watch closely this fall
when kids go back to school and people return
to the office. People may start experiencing
some of that re-entry anxiety of shaking up
their whole world again. We all need to be
supportive in a mindful and conscious way.
Anything to end with?
As much of an advocate as I am for reforming
systems, both in terms of public and
private healthcare systems as well as within
companies, I really think everything we do in
the mental health space needs to come back to
stories of recovery and resilience. At the end of
the day, we need to remind ourselves that far
more people recover from these issues than
don't. In fact, recovery from the vast majority
of mental health problems and illnesses is not
only possible, it's expected, and it's more likely
to happen when people get the help they need.
We have many effective treatments for the
vast majority of struggles people are facing.
So when we tell stories of people who have
overcome and recovered, that's what reminds
people they can do it too. It's going to look
different for them, sure, but they can do it too.
VOLUME 21 | ISSUE 4
19

The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4

In This Issue
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - Cover1
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - Cover2
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - In This Issue
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 4
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 5
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 6
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 7
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 8
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 9
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 10
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 11
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 12
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 13
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 14
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 15
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 16
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 17
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 18
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 19
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 20
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 21
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 22
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 23
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 24
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 25
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 26
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 27
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 28
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 29
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 30
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 31
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 32
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 33
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 34
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 35
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 36
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 37
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 38
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 39
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 40
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 41
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 42
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 43
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 44
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 45
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 46
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 47
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - 48
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - Cover3
The Ontario Broker - Volume 21, Issue 4 - Cover4
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com