Hauwa Ojeifo - Mental health needs to be a priority for everyone

In this episde Hauwa Ojeifo. Mental Health Coach & founder of Nigeria’s first mental health helpline, speaks about how resilience is a muscle - the more you use it, the stronger it gets. Hauwa recalls her time working in the finance industry. At the time, the culture in the industry was that stress was something that you should wear as a badge of honour. She felt that in order to progress she had to work long hours, weekends, and always be available. However, the stress of working too hard brought her to the edge of mental breakdown. Her firm did not offer her the support she needed and she took a decision to put her mental health first and quit her job. Not protecting the mental health of employees robs the person of their potential to achieve but it also means that the company also misses out on the contribution that the employee could have made to it's development. "Mental health needs to be a priority for everyone. Burnout is not a badge of honour." says Hauwa.