Human Resources
HR Lunch & Learn – Considerations for Mental Health and Well-Being in the Workplace – a Systems Perspective
The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the importance of mental health and well-being and the significant impact on each during times of crisis. More recently, the focus on mental health has expanded to include the role the workplace has in promoting and positively impacting worker mental health and well-being. What does or could this focus mean for those who design, maintain and manage systems – supervisors, managers, executive leaders, HR personnel and workplace support professionals? Employees are guided to supportive resources to address personal and workplace challenges, but what can “the system” do to proactively promote well-being. In this Lunch and Learn, we will:
- Review the US Surgeon General’s framework described in the 2022 publication Workplace Mental Health & Well-Being
- Discuss the “Five Essentials for Workplace Mental Health & Well-Being”
- Connect the Five Essentials to our workplaces and the work we do
- Generate ideas and approaches to promote and foster well-being in the context of the Five Essentials
About the Speaker:
Darrow Brown (he/him) is the Chief of Inclusion, Belonging and Well-being at Washington State Department of Health (DOH). He leads the Center for Inclusion, Belonging and Well-being (CIBW), an office DOH established in July 2023. Darrow is also serving a term as one of two co-chairs for the Rainbow Alliance Inclusion Network (RAIN) Business Resource Group (BRG).
Darrow is a career-changer, starting out with a long career in information technology, before remaking his professional life in social work, behavioral health, employee assistance programs and workplace bullying and violence prevention.
Born and raised in Rochester, NY, Darrow describes himself as “a human being living at a busy and sometimes chaotic intersection of Black, gay. male, spouse, parent, friend and servant leader”. Moving from Baltimore, MD in 2018, he, his spouse, two wannabe-crafty teens and two very needy dogs now reside in University Place, Washington.
If you need an ASL interpreter or CART captioning, please let us know by sending an email to SHRPlanning@ofm.wa.gov.
