I founded Abridge Consulting based on a simple, but not easy, goal - to get more people, more help, sooner. I believe we can all learn how to be a bridge between people struggling with their mental health and getting them the support that they need and deserve. The workplace is one of the most important places to learn the skills needed to “be the bridge.” Abridge Consulting clients are organizations and teams who are ready to invest in their people, culture, and bottom line.

With a strong background in learning and facilitation and a passion for workplace mental health, I spent several years as a Corporate Wellness Manager. During that time, I championed workplace mental health and employee total health for 6,000 employees by building enterprise-wide strategies for mental, physical, emotional, and financial wellness. The results of my workplace mental health training program were closely measured and outperformed organizations across Canada positioning me as an industry leader in workplace mental health. 

In my experience there are several key areas to focus on in workplace mental health. Three of these key areas are my specialty. I recommend integrating these three areas in order so that they can build on each other to create maximum impact and value.

Workplace Mental Health Awareness

• Why – executives, leaders and employees need a foundation of mental health literacy that is organization wide. Employees need to believe that their employer is investing in workplace mental health at the organization level. 
• ROI – building an organization wide awareness and shared language around workplace mental health is crucial to create dialogue and reduce stigma before moving on to implementing new training or tools and is key to sustaining any next steps. 

Workplace Mental Health Training

• Why – having awareness and intention is not enough to be a workplace mental health leader, to promote well being and to prevent harm. Leaders need to know their role and require new skills and new tools to have appropriate conversations that provide timely and effective support. 
• ROI – workplace mental health training builds better leaders, helps leaders manage their own and their dependents’ mental health and better support employees. Effective workplace mental health training is key to mitigating mental illness costs directly and indirectly and can be leveraged internally by the client in their onboarding and/or leadership development strategies.

Workplace Suicide Prevention

• Why – suicidal thoughts are far more common that most people believe and an organization that loses an employee or client to suicide experiences a profound impact. 
• ROI – openly talking about suicide prevention promotes help seeking. Employees with suicide prevention awareness are better prepared for internal or external conversations thereby protecting their workplace mental health.