Efforts to Encourage Companies to Send Their Professionals for Training on Mental Health Competencies

Dr Wan Rizal asked the Minister for Manpower whether there are efforts made to encourage companies to send their professionals for training to develop their mental health competencies and be their organisation's resource person at work.

The Tripartite Advisory on Mental Well-Being at Workplaces contains information of some workplace mental well-being training service providers that organisations can consider.

In promoting adoption of the Tripartite Advisory, we try to avoid a one-size-fits-all approach. Formal training and the creation of a resource person may work for larger companies, but is less relevant or practical for SMEs. Even if an organisation is not able to designate at least one of its staff to be trained, it is still possible to consider implementing the other practical recommendations in the advisory.

To further encourage companies to send their representatives for trainings to build up mental health competencies, the Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Council and Health Promotion Board (HPB) have programmes that include mental well-being support. These are offered for free or at highly subsidised rates. Under the Total WSH Programme, providers work with companies to run interventions to address the safety and health gaps holistically, where mental well-being topics are included. Similarly, HPB’s Workplace Outreach Wellness (WOW) package includes mental well-being programmes that strengthen workplace support for employees and help employees manage stress as well as build mental resilience.