Mental Health Awareness Month Guest Blog: Ryan Bond

In 2021, Amazon released “Being the Ricardos,” an Academy Award Nominated film depicting a single production week of “I Love Lucy” and the life of its creators and stars -- Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. In the film, Lucille discovers that she is pregnant. She calls a meeting with the CBS executives and pitches an absolutely scandalous idea that her onscreen character, Lucy, mirrors her own pregnancy, culminating in a birth episode. Absolutely not! the CBS executives say. America is not ready for a pregnant woman on TV. Their idea is to have Lucy stand behind furniture and house plants for the next seven months. Lucille ends up prevailing as her character Lucy was finally “allowed” to “be expecting” (the word pregnant was not to be used) during the season, resulting in a birth episode finale.

But make no mistake, the mindset of the CBS executives isn’t a relic of the 1950s; it is alive and well today. If you don’t look at it, if you don’t acknowledge it, or if you don’t experience it, then it doesn’t exist. Layer in blame, judgment, discrimination, and dismissal, and you’ve got yourself a formidable shame monster designed to keep people small, quiet, marginalized, and misunderstood. 

This is stigma: a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person.

People create stigmas. And it’s people who tear stigmas down. It’s Lucille Ball and pregnancy. It’s Magic Johnson and HIV/AIDS. It’s Nancy Brinker (Susan G. Komen) and breast cancer. These people risked the rejection and emotional exposure of identifying with/as the outcast, confronting people’s bias and comfort to make broad gains in helping millions of people come out of the shadows and connecting them to better healthcare, outcomes, and quality of life.  

It’s time for us to follow their lead and tear down the stigma around mental illness in our communities, families, and organizations. Here are some ideas on how to get started:

Talk about Mental Wellness

Stigmas thrive in the dark corners where no one wants to look. They die in the light. Shine a light on mental illness by starting conversations in your organization about mental health. You don’t have to plan some big program or initiative; think of the “power of one.” Take a training or attend a webinar on mental health first aid, and then share your experiences with your teams and leaders. Share articles about mental wellness in the workplace and ask if it resonates with others. Organize a meeting to talk about mental health and self-care, and see what other people think. If you’re a team leader, dedicate part of your team meeting to discussing mental wellness, and maybe share a story about your own experiences with mental health challenges, crises, or illnesses. With even a little light, it’s not dark anymore.

Promote Whole Body Wellness

The mind is embodied. Therefore, what is good for the body is also good for the mind — sleep, play, low levels of stress/anxiety, exercise, healthy eating, no drugs/smoking, limited use of alcohol, healthy relationships, a feeling of control over actions and their consequences, and purpose that is free from abuse and neglect. Take a long, hard look at what your company — culture, job descriptions, job expectations, pay, policies, management styles, benefits, access to resources, etc. — believes about the health of the whole person who works there. What’s one change at work that would improve whole-body wellness for you personally, for your team, or for the company as a whole? Good. Now go advocate!

Find a Partner

For the next three years, we (Thrive Restaurant Group) are partnering with Wichita State University and their Suspenders For Hope Campaign (https://suspenders4hope.com) to help raise awareness about mental health and suicide prevention, to train our leaders of people in strategies to recognize and support people in a mental health challenge or crisis, and to make our company a safe place for people to share and find help. You don’t have to do this work alone, there are partners eager and willing to help you make your workplace one that cultivates mental health and wellness.

All we have to do is start the conversation. People and the organizations they comprise are uniquely positioned to start this conversation. There are more than 32 million businesses in America. Roughly 50 million people in America suffered some form of mental illness, mental health crisis, or other mental or emotional challenges last year. If you do the math, that’s two people per business — the place people spend roughly 40-50% of their waking hours.  The workplace is already a significant influence on our mental and overall well-being. Let’s maximize our time together and care for the total well-being of our employees.

People make up organizations, which means people also change organizations. You are one of those people, and this is a change you can help initiate and lead. You can become a safe, informed, and caring leader that people know they can come to for help — and if you change, others will as well. So get out from behind the furniture and house plants, and introduce people to a fuller, truer experience of living. 

Ryan Bond

Chief People Officer

Thrive Restaurant Group