Practice makes perfect: tackling mental health and unemployment

Over the past five months, I have been working on the frontline as an employment support worker at Origin Housing. As part of the Year Here programme, a postgraduate social innovation course aimed at designing solutions to complex social problems, I worked with Origin residents who were looking for work by running job search workshops to build their confidence and give them space to practice interview skills. A big part of my role was also contacting residents who were affected by the benefit cap and supporting them in work.

Looking for a job is difficult for everyone. Waking up each day with the knowledge that you’ll be spending another day trawling through endless job sites leaves you feeling hopeless and lacking in motivation. For most, this will fortunately be a temporary state. Experience of work teaches you what to say and how to behave to ensure you’re quickly accepted back into the fold. But for people suffering from mental health problems looking for a job can seem like an impossible task.

Those who have been unemployed for over 12 weeks are significantly more likely to experience anxiety and depression. Unfortunately, the amount of people in work with these common mental health problems is shockingly low.

The link between mental health and unemployment is clear, yet employment support approaches don’t sufficiently incorporate an understanding of mental health into their support methods.

As part of my legacy, I designed a four-week series of workshops that improved unemployed residents’ belief in their ability to achieve and get a job through a combination of creative and educational activities focused on self-expression, cognitive behavioural techniques and practical methods. The workshops enabled participants to reflect on their own unique skills, qualities, and passions, and recognise any negative habits that could be getting in the way of them finding work.

Perhaps most excitingly and surprisingly, Origin staff also benefited from the workshops. Frances Shank, who participated in the workshops, said she found them to be hugely beneficial both personally and professionally. “I have been using the tools for productivity I learnt in the workshops in my own work and have found them to be very effective. It was also really powerful sharing our stories of work and helping unemployed Origin residents to feel more confident.”

For the final session, Origin staff were invited to volunteer a small amount of their time to come and share their experiences of work, giving participants the chance to interview them in a role-play reversal. Running job search workshops which benefit both employed and unemployed people normalises the skills taught, as many of them focus on self-development. This shared experience helps to reduce the shame attached to unemployment, significantly increasing the likelihood of individuals getting back into work or volunteering. It also provides staff with an opportunity to interact with residents in a positive friendly setting.

Unemployment is coupled with a state of social exclusion. Unemployed people don’t have the material resources to engage in leisure activities that workers enjoy and are made to feel undeserving and guilty if they do. Housing associations are in a unique position to provide a space for unemployed people to share their experiences of being out of work in a safe supportive environment.

On the first day of the workshops, one resident attendee said “I shaved for the first time in two years to come here today.” There are unemployed residents who could massively benefit from this kind of targeted approach and need to be reached out to. As people’s benefits are increasingly scrutinised and reduced, it is now more important than ever that housing association’s recognise the link between unemployment and mental health and implement approaches that address these issues simultaneously.