Mental Health in the Social Change Workplace

The applause at the conference was enthusiastic, and the ambiance, reflective. Hands shot up in the air with question after question:

“Can you say more about how it felt when you were depressed?”

“What can we do if our CEO is not supportive of employee well-being?”

“My friend has bipolar, how can I support him?”

I (Enoch) gladly and patiently answered them. On the outside, I looked poised, having just shared my lived experience from depression and suicide attempts to founding my social impact consulting company, Bearapy, to improve workplace mental health in the Asia-Pacific region. Inside, I could feel myself disintegrating. I knew my energy was depleting, and I had been met with rejection after rejection from potential clients because they did not have the “budget” for mental well-being initiatives. I was full of doubt, and wondered if leaving my career as a corporate banker to become a social entrepreneur was a wise choice.

Many social change makers choose to dedicate our careers to the sector despite the hardships, driven by a sense of purpose. But the hardships are not any less real. Under the immense pressure to build a sustainable venture and make a meaningful impact, we risk forgetting ourselves. This work takes a toll on our mental health.

As with Enoch, I (Daisy) have seen social change leaders, including myself, suffer under the weight of immense burdens: the struggle for sufficient resources, the injustices we tackle, the suffering we witness, the desire to be seen and accompanied, the demand to constantly prove ourselves worthy of the work. I have had countless conversations with Brio’s partner teams about the ways we dwell on the past or worry about the future—all while struggling to be fully engaged in the work at present. Added to this is the context of all the systemic barriers and cultural norms that go to the very core of the social change we are trying to effect.

We need new structures and narratives in social change. We also need new emotional responses to the undeniably difficult endeavors we face. In other words, in order to catalyze change, we’ll also have to change ourselves.

Acknowledging the Emotional Hardships in Social Change

It is no secret that the work of social change is hard on social change makers. Numerous studies have demonstrated the higher prevalence of stress among those who work in public service industries and caring professions, including educators, youth workers, and health workers. These teams directly contend with the immediate aftermath and lasting impacts of poverty, violence, and other realities in systemically under-resourced contexts. Social change makers with marginalized identities experience further strain as we navigate dominating culture and oppressive systems of power.

And yet, we see too many social change workers minimize or even deny the effects of these hardships by comparing their circumstances to those of the people they serve, or telling themselves to “tough it out.” We have internalized grind culture and assume we can push through our difficult experiences with sheer willpower. Despite these efforts, emotional pain and physical pain activate us in similar ways, and we cannot ignore the pain that exists in our sector, on our teams, and within ourselves. This is self-exploitation—and our unaddressed pain inevitably wears us down.

Furthermore, stressful workplace environments that lack appropriate supports can lead to negative outward consequences. According to the International Labour Organization, increased worker absenteeism, reduced motivation, decreased satisfaction and creativity, and increased staff turnover are a few of the challenges faced by organizations without supportive psychosocial environments. The case is clear for promoting mental health in every workplace—and all the more in the social change sector, where the context of the work itself is reliably intense and difficult.

Ultimately, while there is mounting evidence correlating positive mental health and worker effectiveness, our argument for supporting mental health in the social change workplace is rooted in human dignity and self-inclusion. Mental health is a fundamental human right—and is indeed necessary for navigating life’s challenges toward a meaningful contribution.

How to Build Skills, Shift Behavior, and Change Culture

The challenges inherent to social impact work are unlikely to disappear. Yet there are specific mental health practices we can cultivate in our workplace to expand our behavioral possibilities, loosen our rigid narratives, and free up energy to seek meaningful systemic and cultural impact. Here are some ideas for how to get started.

1. Cultivate shared language around mental and emotional experiences.

There is a common misconception that people do not want to talk about mental health due to “stigma” and “taboos.” While this is real and more pertinent in some cultures than others, this is not universally true, and if we allow ourselves some creativity, we can find a shared language that allows us to express while being sensitive.

In our work at Bearapy, we facilitate workshops mainly in Asia-Pacific. A common context we share is that many of us were taught to be achievement-focused and task-oriented. Expressing emotions is a less-developed muscle. So, instead of accepting this simply as a “cultural issue,” we supply the words, literally. We lead executives gently by explaining the significance of emotions to our self-awareness and professional development. We give them a list of common emotions of different ranges and intensities, and encourage a method that is simplistic and yet awkward at first attempt, which is to articulate: “I feel disappointed, lonely, frustrated, betrayed, joyful, triumphant, hopeful, etc.” Then, we ask them to connect situations with the emotional experience, and how that relates to their feelings of stress and anxiety as an opening to discuss relevant mental health topics.

This is where the behaviors change—they start talking and do not want to stop.

2. Help managers know what to listen for and ask better questions.

Many managers share the same grievance: “But they don’t tell me they need help!” Ideally, a team member would be extremely articulate and also have the courage to knock on your door and tell you they need time off to tend to their mental health. Realistically, sometimes the team member themself lacks the full understanding of their experience—let alone the words for it. We need to listen between the lines.

Team members might share their questions, doubts, and concerns through casual conversations and questions. For example, they may disclose a challenging situation with a family member as a way of speaking indirectly about a deeply difficult emotional experience. When we misperceive their disclosure as a problem to be solved, we miss the opportunity to listen deeply to the emotions and state of mental health expressed. Sometimes, these are the indirect, indistinct calls for help. The psychosocial education we need to nurture is how to hear the clues, and how to integrate reinforcing knowledge with flexible space for colleagues to express themselves.

The art is to listen for clues, and to relate to their subconscious worries as an opening for a conversation about what’s next.

3. Connect mental health to personal, cultural, and organizational values.

For every team member who is eager to discuss the importance of mental health, there will be other team members who are less inclined to do so. While mental and emotional pain is a universal human experience, it is also unique to each individual. We would do ourselves no favors insisting that colleagues or community members engage with mental health in the same exact ways. So, we must find a way to adapt.

For example, when I (Enoch) was discussing mental health with a group of young professionals here in China, many mentioned the loss of “face” if they fell ill or were burned out, and hence their reluctance towards the topic. We picked up on that, and flipped it. We did not tell them they did not have to worry about “face” or that it was old-fashioned, because we understand it is extremely ingrained in the societal context. Rather, we used the concept. We encouraged them that looking after one’s health is a way to give us more “face,” because once we are healthy, buoyant, and fit, we are more productive, which then means there is a higher chance of reaching the goals we have set for ourselves. Thus, the conversation continued with them exploring what that meant for themselves.

Try intrinsic motivation by considering how a commitment to supporting mental health aligns with one’s chosen quality of being.

4. Develop awareness of the painful narratives that affect your team.

As part of a broader social change ecosystem, I (Daisy) have encountered numerous social entrepreneurs and leaders who are affected, and deflated, by narrow notions of success. Powerful, prominent voices in our sector often dictate what is considered “real” impact, even when marginalized voices may say otherwise. Here are a few common examples of narratives that discourage, and even hinder, teams doing important work:

• Obsession with scale: We haven’t reached huge numbers of people so our work must not be important.
• Gatekeeping: We lack the right recognition or qualifications and therefore are not worthy to be at the table.
• Comparison: We cannot complain about how hard this is because some people in our community have it much worse.
• Heropreneurship: We must bear the weight of this work on our own.
• Failure: Not an option.

Even if we do not say them out loud, we must become aware, as compassionately as possible, that we operate under the influence of such narratives. Then, we can explore which of these ideas we perpetuate, and what might be possible if we start to tell new stories about the work we do and what it means.

Naming harmful narratives and acknowledging how they affect us can be the first step to changing our relationship with the work we do. We experience freedom when we recognize that we can simply observe and be curious about these narratives, rather than cling to them as rigid rules.

5. Offer appropriate support and cultivate positive mental health together.

A common starting point for companies and organizations seeking to support mental health is to offer access to therapy, coaching, and other related services. They may also consider offerings such as mental health days, personal development funding, wellness programs, and sabbaticals. It is important to note the critical role of providing access to mental health professionals; managers and colleagues should never be expected to fill this role. If someone at the workplace needs professional support, or is in crisis, we must utilize the resources available to us. Many workplaces use models such as V-A-R (Validate, Appreciate, Refer) to handle crisis situations and ascertain that individuals are referred to the right kind of support.

In addition to helping individuals access care as needed, consider making it possible for them to build mental health skills for personal and professional well-being. These opportunities might include facilitated well-being spaces or thematic conversations where people can gather to explore important topics together. They can start with simple questions such as, What is important to you right now? What seems to be getting in the way? What have you noticed about your responses to what’s happening? How would you like to respond? After working with teams serving some of the world’s most marginalized communities, I (Daisy) have learned that these kinds of conversations can be deeply meaningful, supportive, and vitalizing. They also offer an intentional space to practice the ideas we have suggested above.

Working toward social change has not been, and never will be, easy. Sometimes, our work takes us to extreme levels of distress and depths of despair; other times, the daily ins and outs are enough to cause us to question our commitment to the mission. These experiences are a heavy burden for anyone to bear, especially alone.

If mental health ultimately allows us to navigate life’s difficulties toward a sense of growth and contribution, then it is critical to work that exists at the intersection of our collective pain and our collective freedom. By embedding simple practices to support mental health, and cultivating a new social change culture that includes our own well-being, we have a better chance at sustaining our engagement in difficult but meaningful work.

Read more stories by Enoch Li & Daisy Rosales.