Enter Shikari's Rou Reynolds hits Parliament to support Where’s Your Head At? mental health campaign
The petition calls on employers to introduce mental health first aiders
Enter Shikari’s Rou Reynolds attended The Houses of Parliament this morning to lend his support to the Where’s Your Head At? petition aiming to improve mental health by ensuring employers look after the wellbeing of their workers.
At the time of writing, over 197,000 people have signed the petition calling for a change in the law to give mental health equal importance to physical health in the workplace. The campaign also calls for all businesses and colleges to introduce mental health first aiders.
Representatives from Bauer Media (owners of Kerrang! Radio) and Mental Health First Aid England along with Natasha Devon MBE delivered the petition to Downing Street today (8th October) alongside Luciana Berger MP who is presenting it to Parliament.
Explaining why he’s supporting the campaign, Rou Reynolds told Kerrang! Radio: "I think that anything that encourages more conversation and destroys the stigma around mental health is great.
“Obviously the workplace is where we spend most of our lives, so having more resources for people in that scenario is definitely a good thing worth supporting."
He added: “I think that having all these grass-roots movements that then take these various ideas to government and then hopefully they will get it sorted and hopefully we can all progress together.
"Mental health is often thought as being quite foreign to people, but I think everyone will go through some sort of struggle in their life.
“I think it should be just something that should be complete normality. It should be like dentistry - every 6 months we should be getting letters through to have a check-up of our mental health; whether we're going through a tough time or not.”
You can sign the petition right here.
Paul Keenan, CEO Bauer Media UK, said: “The support from the public and business leaders for this law change means this can no longer be ignored. We are seeking a seismic change in how mental health is viewed in the UK and urge other business leaders who agree this law change would benefit their business and their people to stand with us.”
Natasha Devon MBE, writer and campaigner, commented: “Since sharing my story, I’ve been inundated with messages from the public telling me their own experiences involving mental health difficulties being treated as a character flaw or lack of professionalism at work.
“These are bright, hardworking people who would be an asset to any work place, but they are often currently unemployed because of how they were treated. Attitudes and culture desperately need to change so that people can be properly supported. Having mental health first aiders in every work place will, I believe, be an integral part of this.”
The Where’s Your Head at? campaign conducted a survey into the state of the UK’s mental health and uncovered:
- 86% of the men and women who responded agreed that mental health is one of the biggest challenges facing the country today and over a third (33%) of those people said they are more stressed now than they were a couple of years ago;
- 90% of the public say they still feel there is a taboo around discussing mental health;
- Over half (56%) of respondents said that if they had to take time off work due to stress/anxiety then they would tell their boss the truth, but this was lower for those living in London