Awareness Fatigue: Rethinking Mental Health Campaigns at Work

UK employers have increasingly embraced mental health awareness campaigns: Time to Talk days, stress workshops, posters promoting openness, and training Mental Health First Aiders. These have helped move the dial on stigma and peer support but they can also backfire when done poorly or in isolation.

One growing issue is that awareness sometimes outpaces support. Encouraging people to open up is positive, but what happens if they do, and nothing follows? In workplaces where trust isn’t firmly established, openness can still carry risks. A recent survey found that one in four UK employees fear reprisals if they disclose a mental health issue. Only around half of those experiencing a mental health problem tell their employer. This shows a persistent gap: the campaign messaging says, “It’s okay to talk,” but many employees are unconvinced that the workplace is truly safe.

This disconnect can lead to mistrust. Employees may think: “They say it’s okay to open up, but I’ve seen what happened to someone who did.” Even if this perception is based on rumours or isolated incidents, it undermines the intent of awareness campaigns. I've even run workshops where delegates were initially hostile, assuming I was there to report back any complaints they raised. I hadn’t been asked to do that, and wouldn’t have agreed to it if I had. 

Another side effect is what’s being described as "awareness fatigue." The constant focus on mental health, without enough nuance, can start to feel overwhelming. Some psychiatrists, like Professor Simon Wessely, have raised concerns that overexposure to mental health messaging risks pathologising everyday emotions. It’s not that awareness itself is the issue—it’s the bluntness of how it’s done. A few difficult days doesn’t equal a breakdown, but some employees may start to think otherwise.

Poorly delivered campaigns can also encourage self-diagnosis or mislabelling, where normal stress gets treated like clinical depression, or worse, employees label others in the workplace without any real understanding. This muddies the water and can undermine genuine support needs.

There’s also the problem of performative action. Some employers treat mental health awareness as a PR opportunity—publicly posting about World Mental Health Day but failing to fix the things that actually cause stress at work. Awareness training for a handful of managers or handing out free mindfulness app subscriptions isn’t a strategy—it risks being seen as performative. Without checking whether these initiatives actually help, or whether staff feel psychologically safe, the campaign becomes a box-ticking exercise.

This risks disengagement. People quickly spot when wellbeing is a branding exercise rather than a real effort to change culture. When that happens, participation drops along with psychological safety and cynicism rises.

Lastly, these campaigns often shift focus onto the individual—'take care of yourself, check in with a colleague, build resilience' - all fine messages, but insufficient if the organisational causes of poor mental health are ignored. Unrealistic workloads, poor line management, or toxic behaviour that’s never challenged. A poster telling people to reach out isn’t enough if the root problems are left untouched.

So what does good look like?

Genuine mental health awareness works best in cultures that are already psychologically safe. When leaders model the values the company website and induction espouse, respect work-life boundaries, and show vulnerability, the message lands differently. But that level of authenticity requires more than good intentions. Leadership needs soft skill training—empathy, listening, and emotional intelligence- so that their actions align with their messaging. Coaching and mentoring are vital tools to build this capacity across leadership levels.

When awareness campaigns are backed by real resources. like counselling, flexible adjustments, robust policies, and stress risk assessments—employees trust them more. And it’s crucial to recognise that mental health doesn't exist in isolation. Financial stress, physical health issues, and social isolation all feed into how we feel and function at work. A truly effective approach is holistic: joined-up support across the spectrum of wellbeing, not just mental health in a vacuum.

Measurement matters too. Are more people disclosing? Are people leaving because of unresolved stress? Are they accessing help earlier? Are stressors being addressed at the source? And when people are rocked by events in life outside of work, their employer is there to have their back—even if it's just a shoulder to cry on.

This takes far longer than any workshop, is more nuanced and yes, difficult to achieve. So when you see all these wellbeing content creators talking about 'Let's move beyond the tick box', whether they realise it or not, this is what they mean. Frankly, there should be some flavour of what I've spoken about above in EVERY organisation, but if you are an organisation of 1000 people or more, there is simply no excuse, and you are burning money unnecessarily by not doing this. 

In short, awareness is half the battle but not the whole war; once we have awareness, we need action. With meaningful culture change, robust leadership development, and practical support in place, awareness campaigns can become part of a genuinely helpful, human approach to workplace wellbeing.