16th May 2023

Meet Kate and Melissa, two of our incredible Mental Health First Aiders

As part of Mental Health Awareness Week, we wanted to spotlight two of our incredible mental health first aiders (MHFA).

At Vodafone, we have been delivering Mental Health First Aid training since early 2019 when we made it a core part of our Wellbeing strategy. We want everyone to be able to acknowledge the support they need when feeling stressed and we understand the benefit provided by our network of people; volunteers who we might work alongside and from all sections of the business who have received the training to best offer a confident and supportive ear.

Kate Godson - Regional Marketing Manager and Mental Health First Aider

Joining Vodafone’s MHFA network immediately appealed to me. Working from home, it’s easy to feel less connected and I wanted to be in the position to both better help myself and support my colleagues and others if they needed it. Discussing mental health openly is so important to reducing stigma.

The training has helped me to work in a way that maintains good mental health and work life balance, and to confidently signpost additional resources and networks within Vodafone if people reach out and need more than just someone to listen to them without judgement. Last year, our Tribe created a “Spirit council” and one of the roles within that is Wellbeing champion. This has enabled us to promote our roles as MHFA and share regular content in prioritised sessions at All hands meetings. This change has been really well received by direct colleagues and the approach is spreading to other areas of the business who are also invited to those sessions

At Vodafone, every MHFA has received nationally recognised training to equip them to offer confident one-to-one support and recognise signs of mental ill-health. We continue to ensure we support not just people receiving help, but our MHFA volunteers too - as we recognise it can be a challenging concept. We offer regular meetings and on-going collateral from our training provider. We share calls in a private environment to look at best practice and common themes that MHFA’s may face (whilst never disclosing calls or identifiable details). These are co-hosted by the same therapists who deliver all our Mental Health training which includes other courses as well.

Melissa Slack - Propositions Manager and Mental Health First Aider

I joined Vodafone’s MHFA team just before we went into lock down. At the time , I was part of the Newark site team and took on the role of ensuring we had a plan for wellbeing activities and people knew who they could contact if people needed support. I really enjoy seeing people succeed and being able to support people, as a MHFA, when they need it most is such an amazing feeling.

I’ve had many successes since joining the team from supporting individuals, holding site wide tea & talk drop in sessions through COVID and sign posting awareness in team meetings/All hands across the business. It’s had such a positive effect on the people and teams around me by just sign posting the amazing benefits Vodafone has to offer.

Huge thanks to all the work Kate and Melissa have delivered for our people - and to all those who support in the network too, your voluntary work and support is invaluable!

We are proud to have been recognised as a Best Workplace for Wellbeing by Great Place to Work 2023.

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