Ashtons Legal introduces Mental Health First Aiders to all regional offices

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.

Ashtons 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.

Every 40 seconds, someone in the world loses their life to suicide and stress, anxiety and depression are the biggest cause of illness in the UK.

R to L: Sally Bavester, Trevor Pierce (MHFA England national trainer),  Lucy Morris, Stefan Mitham, Zoe Byford, Amanda Smitherman and Vicki Clover.