World Mental Health Day: Why Access to Mental Health Support Needs Rethinking
October 10, 2025Posted by:
By Marina Cadman, Head of Wellbeing, PeoplePlus
Drawing on her lived experience and the work of PeoplePlus and partners like Unipart, Marina explores how prevention, authenticity, and human-centred design can help us build systems of everyday resilience - not just responses to crisis.
"Every day, millions of people across the UK experience mental health challenges that do not meet clinical thresholds, yet still hold them back. From anxiety about finances to rising loneliness and uncertainty about the future, to young people locked out of career progression in the current job market, many feel stuck in a kind of limbo: not “ill” enough to qualify for specialist support, yet struggling to function and flourish.
As someone with direct experience caring for those navigating these realities, I have seen first-hand how our systems often fail to respond until people reach crisis. By then, the costs - personal, social, and economic - are far higher.
This year’s World Mental Health Day theme, “Mental Health is a Universal Human Right”, and the associated focus on “access to services in catastrophes and emergencies”, invite us to reflect more deeply on what meaningful access to mental health support truly looks like.
Access is not only about availability. It is about timing, cultural appropriateness, affordability, and trust. It is about whether people feel safe asking for help in the first place, and whether support exists not only for those in clinical crisis, but also for those quietly struggling to cope.
Across the UK, there remain pockets of unmet need that traditional mental health systems were not designed to serve. People experiencing early-stage distress. Adults balancing insecure work, caregiving responsibilities, and chronic stress. Communities that do not always trust public institutions. Individuals who fall through referral gaps. Too often, support structures only activate once someone has reached breaking point. Yet prevention, early intervention, and systems designed for resilience can change that trajectory.
At PeoplePlus, we support individuals across employment, independent living, and prison education - all of which have a direct connection to social inclusion. We are acutely aware that mental health underpins every step of someone’s journey. It affects confidence, decision-making, engagement, and long-term outcomes.
We are listening closely to where current systems are not working. We are asking how we can design more human, responsive, and inclusive forms of support - especially for those in the “pre” or “post” crisis zones. At PeoplePlus, we take a proactive approach by offering our colleagues support before they reach a crisis point, instead of attempting to fix problems after they occur.
We have five internal support groups, including a newly formed one focused specifically on mental health. We are reinvigorating our Mental Health First Aider programme, offering flexible working arrangements, and providing colleagues with access to digital tools and peer-led networks as part of our proactive approach.
Organisations like ours have a role not only in delivering services, but also in convening more intelligent conversations. We want to help shape an ecosystem where early signs of struggle are not ignored, where help is proactive, and where dignity and agency are protected.
It was in this spirit that I recently spoke at the Social Recruitment Advocacy Group Summit, alongside Lara Watson, Network Operations Resource Manager at Unipart. This discussion focused on how embedding authenticity, psychological safety, and healthy workplace culture supports mental health and wellbeing, while also improving retention, performance, and long-term organisational impact.
At Unipart, Lara and her colleagues have developed an impressive and practical model of support. They have trained more than 200 Mental Health First Aiders across the organisation and introduced Sustaining Resilience at Work (STRAW) practitioners who provide structured guidance to help colleagues maintain wellbeing. This commitment to early intervention has already made a tangible difference, ensuring employees feel supported before problems escalate.
Such work demonstrates that wellbeing is not a luxury or an afterthought; it is the infrastructure of a healthy organisation striving to be a safe, supportive space for all to give their best.
The traditional model has been to wait until someone is unwell and then signpost or refer them elsewhere. The new model must focus on building mental health capacity everywhere - in workplaces, communities, and everyday services.
That means integrating mental health awareness and response into frontline services, empowering employers to treat wellbeing as a driver of productivity, embedding peer support and community networks into everyday life, and designing systems through co-production with those who have lived experience.
There are no miracle cures for the complex mental health challenges of our time. But there are better questions to ask, smarter systems to build, and more inclusive pathways to design together.
On World Mental Health Day, our message is simple: let us move from crisis response to human-centred resilience. Let us stop waiting for breaking points and start listening earlier.
And let us do it together."
About the Author
Marina Cadman is Head of Wellbeing at PeoplePlus. Her experience spans direct care, systems advocacy, and service design. She brings personal and professional insight to how society can better support those facing mental health challenges.
#WorldMentalHealthDay #PeoplePlus #WellbeingAtWork #Leadership #Inclusion #MentalHealthAwareness #HumanPotential
October 10, 2025Posted by:
