Mental Health Awareness Week is for small businesses too
Dr. Macarena Staudenmaier, Head of Clinical Product at Simplyhealth, said:
“Good mental health isn’t a 'nice to have'; it underpins individual wellbeing, strong teams, and sustainable businesses. In 2024/25, poor mental health accounted for 22.1 million mental health-related sick days in the UK, and we’ve already hit seven million days lost to mental ill health in 2026 alone. That scale has real consequences for both people and organisations.
“In our latest Health and Wellbeing at Work report with the CIPD, mental ill-health was identified as the leading cause of employee long-term absence and the second leading cause of short-term absence. This is a challenge for businesses of any size, but too often the conversation focuses on what larger organisations, with dedicated teams and bigger budgets, can do”.
The real picture for small and medium-sized enterprises
SMEs make up the backbone of the UK economy – and their people face the same mental health challenges as anyone else. Mental ill health is the leading cause of long-term absence in UK workplaces, and one in four people experience poor mental health every year. Those numbers don’t get smaller just because your organisation is.
The pressure can feel sharper in smaller businesses too. When your team is lean, there’s less buffer. One person struggling can affect everyone around them. And for SME leaders who are often the manager and the first point of contact rolled into one, knowing how to respond – and feeling confident to do so – matters enormously.
For many small businesses, access to quality mental health training has simply felt out of reach. Too expensive, or designed for organisations with more resources than most SMEs have available.
The SME advantage
What often gets missed in this conversation, though, is that small businesses have something larger organisations can only try to replicate – you know your people.
In a smaller team, you notice when someone isn’t themselves. There’s less distance between a struggling colleague and someone who can help. Culture change – the kind that makes people feel safe to speak up about their mental health – is genuinely easier to achieve on a smaller scale. One trained, confident person in a team of 20 has a proportionally far greater impact than in an organisation of 2,000.
The conditions for meaningful mental health support already exist in many SMEs. What’s often missing is the knowledge and confidence to act on them.
So what does good support look like in a small business?
It doesn’t have to be complicated. Good mental health support in a small organisation starts with awareness – understanding what poor mental health looks like, knowing how to start a conversation, and feeling equipped to signpost someone to the right help.
It’s not about having a dedicated wellbeing team or a formal programme.
Creating a culture where people feel safe to speak up, and where those around them have the tools to respond well, starts with training.
Why we’ve partnered with Simplyhealth
MHFA England® has joined forces with Simplyhealth to make that first step more accessible for SMEs across the UK. As part of a three-year, £3 million programme, Simplyhealth is funding places on our Mental Health Aware training at no cost to eligible organisations.
Mental Health Aware is a 4.5-hour virtual training session that equips participants to better understand mental health and feel more confident having supportive conversations at work. It counts towards CPD hours, and every participant receives a certificate from MHFA England on completion.
Here’s what Jenny, Operations Manager at IPEM, had to say:
“We have never had Mental Health First Aiders – one of our staff members recommended this last year but it was cost prohibitive.
“Having staff trained in awareness will only increase our resilience and understanding. Having the early prevention would be hugely beneficial to keep our charity running.”
The value of this training isn’t just in what people learn during the session. It’s in the conversations it makes possible afterwards – the ones that might not have happened otherwise.
This Mental Health Awareness Week, take one step
You don’t need a big budget or a dedicated HR team to start taking mental health seriously. You just need a willingness to build the knowledge and confidence to support your people – and right now, there’s a funded opportunity to do exactly that.
Funded places on Mental Health Aware are available for SMEs with 250 employees or fewer that have not undertaken formal mental health training in the past two years. Each organisation can register up to five participants.
Dr. Macarena Staudenmaier, Head of Clinical Product at Simplyhealth, said:
“Awareness alone will not fix the mental health crisis. At Simplyhealth, our purpose is to improve access to healthcare for all, and mental health is no exception.
“That’s why we’re partnering with MHFA England to fund Mental Health Aware training for SMEs, investing in early understanding, prevention, and confident conversations that can genuinely change things. Mental health support doesn’t need to be complex or costly to be effective. Sometimes, it starts with one person having the right knowledge at the right time. This Mental Health Awareness Week, we’re proud to help small businesses take that first, vital step.”