Eight in Ten Want Mental Health Training. Fewer Than One in Three Get It.

New data from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and Ipsos surveyed more than 2,150 full-time employees at organisations of 100 staff or more. Eight in ten said training on stress and burnout, mental health conditions or crisis response would help them, but fewer than one in three have actually received any. That's a striking mismatch, and it isn't an American problem alone.

What Does the UK Picture Look Like?

The Health and Safety Executive's 2024/25 statistics, published in November 2025, show 964,000 workers in Great Britain suffering work-related stress, depression or anxiety — up from 776,000 the year before. That's a 24% rise in twelve months, and it accounts for over half of all work-related ill health. Some 22.1 million working days were lost as a result.

In nearly four decades of working in this field, I've seen plenty of figures climb and fall. This one keeps climbing. And the HSE has made it clear that organisations should expect closer scrutiny of psychological risk alongside physical risk under its 2022–2032 strategy.

Why Does Training Make Such a Measurable Difference?

The NAMI/Ipsos data is unusually clean on this point. Employees at organisations that offer mental health training were significantly more likely to say they feel supported:

• 86% feel supported by their manager, versus 70% at organisations without training.
• 58% feel supported by senior leadership, versus 43%.
• 43% worry about mental health-related stigma, versus 52%.

Where training exists, leadership feels meaningfully more present. Where it doesn't, almost six in ten employees say the people running the business don't have their back.

What's Blocking Organisations from Acting?

From the conversations I have with safety leads across the UK, three things tend to stall progress:

1. Treating mental health as a wellbeing perk rather than a risk to be managed. The HSE's Management Standards have framed it as the latter since 2004, with six risk areas including demands, control, support and relationships.
2. Training the wrong people first. Mental Health First Aiders are important, but if line managers can't have a competent conversation about workload, the first aider is mopping up something the system created.
3. Skipping the risk assessment step. The duty under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 is to assess risks to mental health, the same way you would assess any other. Plenty of organisations still don't.

What Can Safety Leaders Do This Quarter?

If you're looking for something practical to take into your next leadership conversation, start here:

• Map your current mental health training coverage by role. Who has had what, and when? Most organisations are surprised by the answer.
• Audit line manager capability. Can your managers spot early signs of stress and have a structured conversation about it? If not, that's the first training intervention — not awareness posters.
• Use the HSE's Talking Toolkit and Working Minds framework. They're free, they're regulator-endorsed, and they give you a defensible starting point.
• Build psychological risk into your existing risk assessment cycle. Not a parallel process. The same one.

The Bottom Line

The honest reading of the NAMI data, alongside the HSE figures, is that we're not short on awareness anymore. We're short on follow-through. The workforce is asking for training and getting platitudes; managers are being asked to support their teams without being given the tools to do it. The organisations closing that gap aren't doing anything heroic. They're treating mental health like the workplace risk it is, and training accordingly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Mental Health Training a Legal Requirement in the UK?

There isn't a standalone statutory duty to deliver mental health training, but employers do have a general duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 to assess and manage risks to employees' health, which includes mental health. Training is one of the most defensible ways of demonstrating you've discharged that duty.

How Often Should Mental Health Risk Assessments Be Reviewed?

As a working principle: annually as a minimum, and immediately after any significant organisational change — restructure, redundancy round, new technology rollout, or a notable rise in absence or turnover. The HSE Management Standards approach is built around that kind of regular review.

What's the Difference Between a Mental Health First Aider and a Trained Line Manager?

A Mental Health First Aider is trained to recognise signs of distress and signpost to support. A trained line manager is responsible for the day-to-day conditions that prevent that distress from arising in the first place. You need both, but if you have to choose where to invest first, manager capability tends to deliver broader returns.

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