An alternative model for workplace wellbeing: emancipation through learning Elizabeth Cotton, Middlesex University Birkbeck Business Week

The bad news Precarious work and precarious workers Rise in demand and fall in supply of mental health services Rise(?) of Workplace Wellbeing Future research agenda Mental health at work context

Corporate Social Responsibility/ HIV/AIDs trajectory Credibility for employers Credibility for employees Stigma and tackling victimization Employee engagement and participation linked to behaviour change Workplace Wellbeing

Simplification of positive psychology and cognitive behavioural methods Keep calm and carry on Ignores external realities Denies conflict and adversarial employment relations Individualizes collective issues Stage set for superheroes Has no principles Criticisms of wellbeing & positive psychology model

UK workplace tour: Can we develop a progressive approach to mental health at work? Used concept of ‘resilience’ Piloted online courses, Surviving Work Surviving Work Library Surviving Work Project

Active Learning or Participatory Methods originating in European Workers movements (Swedish and German) and emancipatory movements in Latin America (Freire) Largest international system of adult education Emancipatory aims Empowerment through consciousness raising, problem identification and collective problem solving Dialogic model using small group dynamics and collective tasks Underpinned by principle of solidarity and practice of confidentiality Emancipatory education

Emancipatory model of resilience ANGER Understanding it Expressing it Challenging fear and shame AGENCY Consciousness raising Challenging internal & external oppressors RELATIONSHIPS Collectivising Social capital Pooling experience REALISM Understanding external realities Negotiating realities No magic solutions PRINCIPLES Non-discrimination Confidentiality Solidarity

People like to talk Helpful stuff for human beings Realistic overlap Real workplace capacity Good use of the technology Good use of unions This is what we found

From niche to mass provision From training to social media Shift in the experts Future of Workplace Wellbeing

@NHSE_Dean Never put off a difficult conversation. They just become harder, more stressful and more time would definitely be: Ask for help when you need Plug the earphones in and listen to the first act of 'Die Walküre' – well, that's how I've managed this morning. :-) and imagined myself in a helicopter. If you can join a union, do so. You may find you are not the only one having a hard Let’s cut the serious stuff and get down to some heavy mucking about