The theme for Mental Health Week 2026 is ‘Taking Action.’

This topic may feel daunting, as there are innumerable barriers to us being able to actively support mental health and wellbeing in the workplace. That’s why this week we’re focussing on easy, free things you can do now to take action for mental health.

1. Mind your language: it’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it.

As simple as it sounds, communication is a vital step toward supporting mental health in work. Building mental health conversations into your day-to-day can help to reduce stigma and foster an environment in which everyone feels able to speak up when they need support.

Perhaps you might build in time to ask people how they are more often. This is especially important in remote or hybrid environments as online meetings often miss out on valuable team-building chat that would happen naturally in an office environment. You may also want to remind people of available resources in your regular team meetings or update emails - for example, reminding people of an Employee Assistance Programme, or sharing Safe In Our World’s Helplines.

2. Do what you say you’ll do: be someone your team can trust.

There are several studies that suggest one of the biggest barriers to trust in workplaces is ‘corporate hypocrisy’, or the perception that leaders in an organisation may say one thing, but do another. This loss of trust can have a massive impact on team wellbeing, so consider what you’re saying or promising to your team, and how you can follow through on that.

Of course, there will always be times when plans change, projects fall through, or longer periods of uncertainty where it’s difficult to communicate openly with your team. In these instances, you can still avoid perceived hypocrisy by maintaining open lines of communication: even if the update is that there’s no update, saying that alone can be enough to dissuade anxiety caused by uncertainty.

Learn more about communication in our recent blog post!

3. Start small: don’t underestimate the value of informal support.

Supporting your team’s mental health can feel like a mammoth task, with so many different threads to pull at. Barriers like time and budget are extremely common in all sizes of organisation, and they can prevent companies from getting mental health support started in the first place. Health insurance or an Employee Assistance Programme might be too costly, or you might not have time to write up a comprehensive mental health policy and list of resources. But you don’t have to start with these big, formal building blocks. Many small to medium organisations in the creative sectors excel at offering ‘informal’ support - things like open communication, compassionate leadership, and flexibility can have just as positive an impact on your team’s wellbeing.

There are all sorts of places you can access free support, too. Safe In Our World’s Level Up Mental Health initiative is available to any company in the global games industry, and offers a wealth of free resources, training, and support that you can access at any time.

This Mental Health Week, think about the small (or big!) ways you can take action to support the mental health of your teams. Think about how you can continue these actions past this one awareness week, and build them into everyday practice.

Learn more at safeinourworld.org or by emailing hello@safeinourworld.com.