Frank Mullen Bespoke Scholar 2019
Katie Evans, Assistant Financial Controller, Kimpton Blythswood Square Hotel

I have worked in hotels for over 19 years and have seen the changes in the way people interact with each other and deal with difficult situations.  Mental Health awareness has interested me hugely, particularly over the last couple of years. As part of my role at Kimpton Blythswood Square I work closely with the People Development Team and was also made a "Guru" a couple of years ago whereby I helped to motivate the team, promote wellbeing and share the mission, vision and values of the company in a passionate way.

With 2 young children I have realised the pressure young people put on themselves and the pressure put on them by others and felt it would be beneficial for me to learn more about this so I could become a Mental Health Ambassador for Kimpton Blythswood Square and help as many of our team as I can.

Protecting team members’ mental health is a major concern within the hospitality industry due to it being fast paced and non-stop, and it’s a big reason for team absences. I felt having someone knowledgeable based in the hotel that staff could come and talk to would be a huge step towards helping the team to have healthy minds at work.

I applied for HIT Scotland’s Bespoke Scholarship to learn about this area and attended a two day Mental Health First Aid course which was really interesting, and gave me a lot of information and ideas to use at work. We learned about the importance of listening to someone, what to say and do in response, and how to give immediate help.  We looked at some common mental health problems and the connection between those and alcohol and drugs, or discrimination. We were trained on how to ask if someone feels suicidal, which shocked me at first, but the trainer said that a lot of people come to a realisation that they are not as bad as they think when you come out and ask them so directly.

Hopefully through time I can use the knowledge gained and create a team of mental health ambassadors at Kimpton Blythswood Square, and also help other hotels in the group deliver similar support networks all with the focus of positive mental health and awareness.

I think the most difficult thing is getting to the place where everyone feels they can talk to me, so to start with we are putting up an information board with helpful information and a bit about me (for those of the team that don’t really know me).  We’ll hopefully have a drop in session every week with bookable appointments available for the teams just to chat to me, whether they are having a stressful day and need to off load, having money worries or much more serious issues where they feel they have gone as far as they can go.

It’s also important that all HODs understand the issues.  The stigma around mental health is that people are just lazy when in fact they could be dealing with depression, bi-polar disorder, anxiety and just can’t face coming to work, but I think unless you’ve had it yourself, or have had some training in it, it’s very difficult to understand.

It’s such a huge issue now, I think hotels all over Scotland should take this opportunity to have someone trained in mental health first aid through a HIT Scotland Scholarship, so they can share that knowledge with all managers, and know how best to help their staff to be mentally healthy.

Interested?  Apply for a Frank Mullen Bespoke Scholarship now in our Inspirational section here