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May is National Mental Health Awareness Month, and it’s fast approaching! While mental health is, more than ever, part of the conversation in professional contexts, it still doesn’t get enough meaningful engagement.
We all have the best intentions, but the day-to-day grind has a habit of pushing cultural well-being to the sidelines. So, Mental Health Awareness Month presents the perfect opportunity to pull these priorities back into focus.
Here, we offer 5 practical and effective ideas for promoting mental health awareness this May, helping to reduce stigma, improve your organizational culture, and enrich your employees’ work and home lives. If you’re wondering what to do for Mental Health Awareness Month, these tips should give you some inspiration.
1. Host workshops or Q&As with mental health speakers
Education is the cornerstone of awareness, so organizing workshops or events featuring an expert speaker can be a great start to Mental Health Awareness Month.
Inviting an external psychologist, counselor, or wellness coach to lead a session provides a safe space for employees to ask questions they might not feel comfortable bringing to a manager.
Whether it’s a seminar on managing burnout or an anonymous Q&A session about anxiety, these workshops show your team that the company is willing to invest time in their wellbeing. It moves the conversation from abstract theory to real-world support.
But your event doesn’t have to involve a third-party expert. If you have an appointed mental health first aider in your team, why not give them the opportunity to lead the session? They have a wealth of great knowledge to share, and they also have the advantage of knowing your staff personally and understanding your company’s unique culture and challenges.
By letting an internal advocate lead the way, you create a more relatable environment where colleagues feel safe to speak up, share their own experiences, and realize that support is available right there in the office.
It needn’t be a comprehensive, formal seminar. Even something as short and sweet as an open discussion about appropriate language to use when discussing mental health can be valuable.
2. Launch a green ribbon campaign
If you’re wondering how to raise awareness for mental health in a low effort but highly visible and unifying way, we recommend leaning on the mental health awareness color: green!
Something as simple as encouraging management and the wider team to wear a green ribbon, an international symbol of support for mental health, can show that employees are valued as human beings rather than just workers.
Distribute physical ribbons in the office or provide digital green ribbon assets for remote workers to use in their email signatures or Slack profiles. It’s a small gesture that sends a powerful message: “You are not alone, and it’s okay to talk about it here.”
Related – An Employer’s Guide to Mental Health at Work
3. Organize physical activities to boost mental health and raise funds for mental health charities
One of the most impactful Mental Health Awareness Month activities takes advantage of May’s favorable weather.
There is a strong link between physical movement, mood, and psychological resilience1. This makes physical activities some of the best ways to celebrate Mental Health Awareness Month at work!
Physical activity releases endorphins that naturally reduce stress. It doesn’t have to be a major event. Even a guided lunchtime yoga session or a group walk in a local park can break the cycle of a high-pressure workday and provide a much-needed mental reset.
The goal should be to get people away from their desks in a way that is non-disruptive of core business operations but gives employees a chance to move and breathe. Consider, for example, walking meetings or a team fitness challenge.
If you want to broaden your impact, you can attach fitness challenges to fundraising campaigns for mental health charities, turning personal wellness into a collective social good.
4. Dedicate company messageboards to sharing mental health resources
A great way to ensure mental health awareness activities in May have a meaningful and enduring impact throughout the year and beyond is to prominently highlight support options.
Use your company intranet, Slack channels, or physical bulletin boards to curate a library of resources employees can look into to learn more about mental health or seek support when required.
This could include:
- Links to your Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
- Recommended mindfulness apps or podcasts.
- Articles on setting healthy work-life boundaries.
By centralizing this information, you remove the friction for employees who might be struggling but don’t know where to turn for help.
5. Provide employees with mental health awareness training
Providing structured mental health awareness training is the most effective way to ensure your team has the vocabulary and tools to support one another year-round.
By investing in formal education, you move beyond awareness and toward a proactive prevention culture where mental health is managed as professionally as physical safety.
At Cardinus, we deliver a comprehensive and customizable online Mental Health Awareness course, providing a flexible, low-pressure way for staff to learn at their own pace. Our course is designed to help employees understand mental health, wellbeing and risk factors, equipping them with essential coping tools and support strategies.
As an eLearning resource, the course can be rolled out immediately, regardless of workforce size or the location of employees, be they on-site, home, hybrid, or even international workers. If you’d like to hear more, see our Mental Health Awareness course page.
