Neath Port Talbot Council is looking at training its staff to provide mental health first aid to their colleagues.

The local authority said it was currently researching training courses on mental health first aid with a view to training two employees in each directorate.

Mental health-related absence has represented the highest number

of days lost to sickness absence in the council for a number of years.

In 2017/18, employees took an average of 9.5 sick days each.

In total, 6,823 days of absence were related to ‘stress’,  2,096 days were related to bereavement and 2,080 days were down to depression.

The council said it was also planning to offer guidance to any schools which wished to create their own mental health first aiders.

Depending on the numbers of staff who used the service, the council said it would look to increase the number of trained  employees.

The initiative is part of a national campaign, Time to Change Wales, which seeks to end the stigma and discrimination faced by people with mental health problems.

At a council meeting on Monday, May 9, councillors voted in favour of the local authority signing up to the campaign’s employer pledge commitment.

Officers said the pledge was a public declaration that the council wanted to tackle mental health stigma and discrimination.

As part of the commitment the council has put together an action plan aimed at raising awareness and providing help for employees to enable them to talk about mental health, and have access to information on where to find

help.

A written progress review on the action plan will be provided annually to councillors sitting on the personnel committee.