The Importance Of Knowing The “Ins And Outs” Of Mental Health

When people hear the words “mental health,” they often think of ways to lower stress or activities such as yoga or meditation. I think we fail to realize that it’s so much more than that; it’s a continuum ranging from good mental health to having a mental illness. Throughout our lives we will vary along this continuum. A person with good mental health will feel in control of their emotions and have positive interactions with the people around them. This allows a person to perform well at work and in family or other social relationships.

We often don’t consider the other side of the continuum: mental illness. One in five Americans will experience a mental illness in a given year, which will differ in severity. So, if so many of us are or will experience mental illness, why are we not talking about it? Why don’t we talk about mental illness like we do physical illness?

For me, it was the fear of being judged. I didn’t want to be seen as weak, less than or incapable. I felt that with a physical illness you got a pass, as if the perception was you couldn’t control it; whereas some have the belief that one can control a mental illness. I’m not saying physical illnesses aren’t important or serious, because they are; and so are mental illnesses. Mental illnesses should have the same care, attention, compassion and consideration as physical illnesses.

It takes the average person 10 years to get help for a mental illness. We need to change the negative perception around mental illness in order to decrease those years to months. We can do that one person at a time by starting with ourselves, by taking the steps to ensure we are healthy – both mentally and physically – and then, offering up support and resources to others that is crucial for the future. This way, we can live in a society that doesn’t see mental health as a weakness, but what it is: An illness that requires medical attention and that’s OK!

It wasn’t until I faced my own fears of being judged that I realized how important it is to support one another and talk openly about our experiences with mental illness. It was because of my darkest, loneliest days I was able to see the importance of addressing such an issue. I wanted to change the perception around mental health, and you can’t change something if you don’t talk about it or if you keep doing the same thing and expecting different results.

For this reason, I created Inside Out (well, one of many reasons). Inside Out provides our leaders with the training and information needed on how to identify and respond to signs of mental illness/distress and raises our level of awareness around mental health. The training is not meant to offer diagnoses or replace professional expertise, but rather begin to create a space to talk about mental health.

Through the training, leaders will be able to: 

1. Describe how mental health stigma impacts the lives of team members and leaders 
2. Recognize common signs of mental illness 
3. Implement an empathetic response framework to have productive conversations about mental health  
4. Identify mental health resources 

To date, we’ve had approximately 1,400 leaders complete the training and have received profound gratitude for providing this type of training. Tim Birkmeier, our Chief Revenue Officer at Rocket Mortgage^®, had this to say about the training: “The ‘Inside Out’ program is especially important for our folks and ensures we create the best environment for everyone building a career here atRocket Mortgage^®!”

Other leaders across the company:

 “I think this is one of the best things we are doing as a company.”

“This was a great training as we have never had anything like this before! Great win,Rocket Mortgage^®!”

“I just want to say thank you for creating the Inside Out class, and as much as it was for us leaders to help our team members, it ultimately helped me recognize a few things personally. I have since started counseling.”

We have plans to create a team member training as well as furthering our efforts of knowledge and support for one another.

At the Rocket Companies^®, the well-being of our team members and leaders is important to running our business. By providing resources and having conversations to prevent our team members and leaders from experiencing shame or loneliness from the stigma, we’re changing the perception of mental illness. We are raising our level of awareness around mental health, supporting our team members and leaders and protecting our business.

I am thankful to work for a company that makes its team members and leaders a priority both through their professional and personal development. We offer multiple programs and classes that help us to develop in our careers and provide the same care and opportunities when it comes to our medical resources. The Inside Out program has partnered with the Wellness team to ensure our team members and leaders are receiving the resources how and when they need them. This includes the recent addition of the Rock Health Collective, which offers mental health services along with our virtual mental health providers.

By creating a dialogue we can hope to find cures, realize we are not alone, break down the stigma surrounding mental illness, support one another and help others get the help they need.