Mental Health Success & Big Change at The IoD

I have an awful lot of people to thank for reaching some 250,000+ individuals around the UK & Globally in the last year with my work in the mental health space.

Directors of companies like The Building Societies Association, Red Letter Days, Standard Life, Oliver Agency and many more are at the forefront of that thanks, for sharing my blog with their staff and asking me to write various articles etc. surrounding mental health in the work-space for their publications.

Only a few months ago all the leg work and hard fought challenges aside, I was presented with an Award for my work in Mental Health Awareness, by the IoD.

They now have an annual Director of the Year Award for Leadership in Mental Health Awareness, of which I was the first ever recipient, against other award winners like Ella’s Kitchen Founder Paul Lindley and CEO of Battersea Dogs Home Claire Horton.

Here you can see the IoD Chairmans blog about Mental Health, my preferred local Surrey charity Oakleaf Enterprise and the IoD awards; with his comments on presenting my award: David Seall Blog

This accolade has surely set a precedent for how companies should look at their short and long term focus, surrounding mental health in the workplace and will give leverage to companies not only creating a wider awareness within their organisations, but taking steps to change their ethos and processes surrounding managing their staff well being for the long term, with a more sustainable approach.

The evening was absolutely beautiful, my award category came and went and I’d assumed that I’d been unsuccessful within my category, however at the end of the awards they announced that they’ve got one final special award to present and I was called up to say a few words as the recipient…

The opportunity for a young entrepreneur, dealing with an issue that can regularly be debilitating to the point of real difficulty day to day, was a huge move for this organisation stepping up to create awareness.

I cannot speak highly enough of the IoD and how they’ve fed understanding and awareness of mental health in the workplace, into their teachings, during the last year or so, under Davids flag and I feel confident with the most prestigious networking organisation in the UK behind the ‘movement’ that they will change lives in what they’re doing.

I hope in years to come I’ll be presenting this award to other entrepreneurs and I truly hope that business owners find some inspiration in my journey and take steps to give opportunity to those closest to them… Their staff, their friends and family…

With around 300 people in the room, all fairly senior directors of businesses in their own right and with a number of BBC Apprentice candidates failing to win their categories, I feel extremely proud of how far I’ve come, since the young boy under the duvet cowering in fear of his father…

Make the change happen, that’s all I can ask of anyone… Hold the door, take the old ladies bag up the stairs at the station, be the light in someones life, when there may just be no one there on the other side for them to turn to. We were all meant to be whole and to be happy and it may be through turmoil that we grow, but we can also rid ourselves of the ‘stiff upper lip’, or the awkward conversational angst and step up to the plate.

If you turn one person’s life around and that’s all you ever do… Was your time on this earth wasted…?! You could be helping the chap who cures cancer, the woman on the brink with a baby at home, or the man that may give you your next promotion…

Do it with love…. ACTUALLY CARE! And upon letting that positive approach be your guide, rest assured, wanting nothing in return, you’ll be at peace in the sense that you ‘were’ the change. You may just save a life…

Hooray for awards, much good may the crystal do us, but the people watching may just be the catalyst we need to make a difference…

I’ve now been invited to do a personal blog for the IoD and be interviewed in a video blog for them and their wider mental health campaign, so keep your eyes open for that in the coming months…

And if you’re sitting there reading this and you think good for him, but why am I stuck in the dark… Please reach out. I am here to listen… And I genuinely mean that… I don’t care about money, or publicity or all that rubbish, what I do care about is trying to ensure that no one else ever has to feel as lost as I have…

It often feels like there’s no one there… But there is, and I am, and I will be… Don’t choose the bridge, or the drugs, or the knife, or the train, as I have in dark times, if we work as one then we will never be lonely again…

To see my work with HeadTalks please check out my video and know you’re not alone.

And if you want to reach out then drop me a line to thomas@corporatewardrobe.co.uk