Making an impact with Arthur D. Little
POINT3 first came into contact with management consulting firm Arthur D. Little (ADL) in early 2021. One passionate individual from within the organisation identified the need for more mental health and wellbeing support for his colleagues – as the world continued to feel the impact of the global pandemic.
This is a story of how one individual created a movement that has resulted (so far!) in 15 individuals from 7 different ADL countries being trained as MHFAiders – in turn activating a groundswell of support for the ADL community.
On first meeting Oliver Turnbull, he carried the title of Principal – Digital Problem Solving. Added to that title now is Global Head of Wellbeing and Mental Health First Aider – testament to the role he has played in pioneering the wellbeing movement within ADL.
Oliver’s experience will sound familiar to many. He has a personal interest in mental health and wellbeing – including being a podcast host alongside Dr Paul Keedwell on “Why The Long Face?” – a podcast established in 2019 to shine a light on all things mental health and wellbeing.
Oliver has also been a guest on POINT3’s own podcast Walk The Talk. You can watch/listen to that here.
Building a case for mental health first aid training
Oliver took this personal interest into his professional world and over the course of eighteen months – with support along the way from the POINT3 team and our great partner Imogen Wall – built, presented and established the case for greater mental health support amongst the ADL community.
Breaking down the stigma and encouraging conversation around mental health within the corporate world can take time, tenacity and thoughtful analysis. An early win was Oliver attending and trialling an MHFA course so he could experience this first hand – and in turn build the case to roll this out amongst a wider group of colleagues.
One year later and ADL now boasts a community of trained MHFAiders located in Austria, France, Germany, Singapore, Sweden, the UK, US and Dubai.
We couldn’t be prouder of this core group of individuals who work together tirelessly to raise awareness and understanding of the MHFAider service, breakdown stigma and support the wider ADL community. The team meets fortnightly, as a group, to support each other with challenging cases and exchange ideas on how to continue to encourage better mental health across the ADL world.
Having attended the MHFA training, individuals average confidence levels rose from 4.2 to 8.1 (out of 10) and average knowledge rose from 3.6 to 8.5.*
Our partnership with POINT3 Wellbeing has played an essential part in helping to drive and embed the cultural shifts that we are seeing evidenced within our organisation.The MHFAider training in particular accelerated our collective knowledge and confidence in supporting individuals who are experiencing poor mental health.We look forward to continuing to upskill further individuals within our organisation and to grow our wellbeing offering and community.Oliver Turnbull says:
I had some previous training and a keen interest in mental health prior to joining this course. I left with a much better understanding of mental health and how to support the initiative of prioritising mental health in the workplace. We were led by wonderful teachers and I particularly appreciated the safe space for learning they created by leading with vulnerability.*One learner commented:
The POINT3 team have recently welcomed ADL MHFAiders to our MHFA Meet-ups – cross-sharing session that we host to bring MHFAiders from different organisations together to listen and learn from each other. As the wellbeing initiatives continue to take root, we very much look forward to continuing our partnership with ADL in 2023 and beyond.
*Taken from post training feedback
To find out more about our Mental Health First Aid training visit here.