Meg Delp with Supporting Employee Mental Health Without Becoming a Therapist

In episode 259, Coffey talks with Meg Delp about workplace mental health, burnout prevention, and how employers can create psychologically safe cultures that support employee wellbeing and performance.  They discuss the growing awareness of workplace mental health and its impact on business outcomes; generational differences in expectations around employee wellbeing and psychological safety; caregiver stress and burnout among younger employees and the sandwich generation; mental health stigma and why employees hesitate to seek support at work; practical manager training strategies for handling mental health conversations appropriately; how frontline supervisors can support employees without becoming therapists; the role of psychological safety in employee engagement and retention; burnout warning signs including exhaustion, irritability, and declining performance; how leadership and HR can model healthy mental health conversations year-round; NAMI’s Stigma Free Workplace Initiative and free “You Can Ask” mental health training resources; the importance of employee friendships and trust relationships at work; balancing compassion, performance management, and ADA accommodations in workplace conversations; and how proactive mental health support improves retention, engagement, and organizational culture.  For HR teams who discuss this podcast in their team meetings, we've created a discussion starter PDF to help guide your conversation. Download it here https://goodmorninghr.com/EP259  Good Morning, HR is brought to you by Imperative—Bulletproof Background Checks. For more information about our commitment to quality and excellent customer service, visit us at https://imperativeinfo.com.   If you are an HRCI or SHRM-certified professional, this episode of Good Morning, HR has been pre-approved for half a recertification credit. To obtain the recertification information for this episode, visit https://goodmorninghr.com.   About our Guest:  Meg Delp, PsyD LMFT is the Director of Workplace Mental Health at the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) where she leads the StigmaFree Workplace initiative. As an Organizational Psychologist and (retired) Marriage and Family Therapist, Meg brings both clinical and organizational expertise to her work, helping employees and leaders alike understand how to build company cultures that prioritize mental health, connection, and psychological safety. She’s passionate about creating workplaces where people feel safe to show up as themselves and supported in caring about one another.  Meg Delp can be reached at: https://stigmafree.nami.org  https://www.linkedin.com/company/nami  https://www.facebook.com/NAMI  https://www.instagram.com/namicommunicate  https://x.com/NAMICommunicate  About Mike Coffey:  Mike Coffey is an entrepreneur, licensed private investigator, business strategist, HR consultant, and registered yoga teacher. In 1999, he founded Imperative, a background investigations and due diligence firm helping risk-averse clients make well-informed decisions about the people they involve in their business. Imperative delivers in-depth employment background investigations, know-your-customer and anti-money laundering compliance, and due diligence investigations to more than 300 risk-averse corporate clients across the US, and, through its PFC Caregiver & Household Screening brand, many more private estates, family offices, and personal service agencies. Imperative has been named a Best Places to Work, the Texas Association of Business’ small business of the year, and is accredited by the Professional Background Screening Association.  Mike shares his insight from 25+ years of HR-entrepreneurship on the Good Morning, HR podcast, where each week he talks to business leaders about bringing people together to create value for customers, shareholders, and community. Mike has been recognized as an Entrepreneur of Excellence by FW, Inc. and has twice been recognized as the North Texas HR Professional of the Year.  Mike serves as a board member of a number of organizations, including the Texas State Council, where he serves Texas’ 30 SHRM chapters as State Director-Elect; Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County; the Texas Association of Business; and the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, where he is chair of the Talent Committee. Mike is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) through the HR Certification Institute and a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP). He is also a Yoga Alliance registered yoga teacher (RYT-200) and teaches multiple times each week. Mike and his very patient wife of 29 years are empty nesters in Fort Worth.   Learning Objectives: Identify early warning signs of employee burnout and workplace mental health challenges. Apply practical techniques for having supportive, work-focused mental health conversations. Develop workplace strategies that improve psychological safety and employee wellbeing.