By Mental Health First Aid USA on July 29, 2025
Updated on: July 30, 2025
Earlier this month, Tramaine EL-Amin, Vice President, Mental Health First Aid led a Breakout Session, “Building a Thriving Workforce: Practical Strategies for Workplace Wellbeing” at the SHRM Annual Conference & Expo (SHRM25) in San Diego. The event welcomed more than 20,000 human resource professionals, executives, students and other attendees.
Tramaine’s breakout session was one of 375 handpicked events, and featured insights into today’s dynamic work environment, and the importance of prioritizing the mental wellbeing of your workforce. She led a conversation about actionable strategies and best practices to build a more resilient workforce, with the goal of attendees walking away with valuable insights and practical tips to empower their workforce and enhance productivity, resilience and overall satisfaction.
Results of a recent study show more than half of workers feel pressured to prioritize organizational wellbeing over their personal wellbeing. At least 1 in 5 workers reported they have taken a lower-paying job, pursued a different career, or left a job without having another one lined up to protect their personal wellbeing. This study, and many others like it, reveals that a sizeable portion of employees are facing challenges impacting their mental health in the workplace.
A leading voice in the mental wellbeing space, the National Council for Mental Wellbeing provides evidence-based strategies that are shown to help employees understand and reduce stigma in the workplace, recognize and help a colleague who may be experiencing a mental health or substance use challenge and empower employees to have safe, respectful and effective conversations about mental health and substance use challenges.
As business leaders and HR professionals, a question you might have to answer to sustain a workplace mental health program is: How effective is a mental health training course? Evaluating the impact of our programs, including Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) at Work, is critical to ensure they are relevant and impactful. In February 2025, an evaluation was conducted to understand the impact of two MHFA at Work products: MHFA at Work Intro, a 2-hour self-paced online course, and MHFA at Work Certification, a 4-hour course resulting in certification in MHFA at Work.
Insights gained from the evaluation included:
- 88% of participants said MHFA at Work Intro was relevant to their daily lives
- 87% of participants in MHFA at Work Intro are confident they can help a coworker and intend to take action in the event of a mental health or substance use challenge
- 75% of participants in MHFA at Work Certification said the training increased their mental health knowledge
- 95% of participants in MHFA at Work Certification are confident they can help a coworker and intend to take action in the event of a mental health or substance use challenge
If you are looking to get started with MHFA at Work, we encourage you to get in touch. If you already know the value of MHFA at Work but need to get support from leadership, our “Convince your Boss” template letter has everything you need.
More than 4 million people in the U.S. have already been trained in MHFA. If you haven’t brought the training to your organization yet, now is a great time.