The first UN System Workplace Mental Health and Well-Being Strategy was approved by the HLCM and subsequently launched by the Secretary-General in October 2018. Following this initiative, significant progress was made and new opportunities for action have arisen. Regan Shercliffe reveals more about the UN’s new strategy for 2024 and beyond.

Can you tell us what the main pillars of the UN Mental Health Strategy are?

Based on the WHO and ILO guidelines, the main pillars are prevention, promotion, and support. The idea is to focus on preventing mental health issues within the UN system, promoting mental health, and providing support. Under each of these pillars, there are several streams aimed at putting these principles into practice.

The strategy is broad and includes various components, such as risk assessment policies, mainstreaming mental health practices, manager training, and activities for stigma reduction. The strategy is publicly available and can be easily accessed online.

The framework is designed to be applicable at all levels, helping people identify where they fit within it depending on their role and leadership position.

To give some context about myself, I’m a clinical psychologist with 15 years of experience as a staff counselor in the UN system providing psychological services. I started with UNHCR in Pakistan and Sri Lanka before moving to the Middle East during the Syrian crisis, covering UNHCR’s operations across six countries. Later, I joined UNICEF, providing services in Asia, and then became Chief of Staff Counseling at WFP for seven years. I now hold a leadership position in this area. I earned my master’s and PhD in clinical psychology at a university in Canada, where I am from. Before joining the UN, I spent 10 years in academia, focusing on research and clinical work related to trauma and PTSD.

It’s crucial to clarify that mental health issues in the UN are typically responses to specific events. While biological factors do play a role in many psychiatric conditions, most cases we encounter within the UN are situational. While I acknowledge the biological underpinnings of some disorders, such as depression, the issues we often see are event-driven.

The term ‘trauma’ is used frequently, but we need to recognize that it’s a very Western concept. My training in trauma response was thorough, but when I started working in different cultural contexts, I found it didn’t always apply the same way. Western psychiatry and psychology, being more individualistic, works well in places like Western Europe, Australia, and North America, but it requires significant adaptation in other cultures. We need to be culturally sensitive and avoid assuming that everyone’s experiences fit neatly into the definitions found in Western literature.

The point I’m making is that the UN Mental Health Strategy offers a framework for identifying the drivers of well-being in the UN system. Rather than focusing solely on incidents like bombings, we should consider the systemic factors influencing mental health. Mental health outcomes don’t exist in isolation; they are reactions to broader circumstances. The strategy aims to look at the internal processes that may be contributing to mental health issues and then addressing them effectively.

The Strategy has been in place for five years, but its implementation is only starting now. Could you explain the reasons behind this delay?

The Strategy began development around 2013 or 2014, initially focusing on the responsibilities of agencies and their duty of care towards staff. This led to a comprehensive piece of work, which is publicly available online. Over time, the focus evolved into developing a mental health strategy. The first five years involved working with various UN funds, agencies, and programs to reach a consensus, which was a challenging and lengthy process.

Once the Strategy was finalized, the next step was to focus on its implementation, which is where my role comes in.

My current responsibility is to review the scorecard and assess the internal systems of the agencies to see how they are performing. The mental health strategy has a twofold aim. Firstly, it seeks to identify and highlight best practices in several UN agencies, such as psychosocial risk management, mental health literacy training, and quality psychosocial support. My role is not to reinvent the wheel, but to scale these best practices to a system-wide level.

The goal is to ensure that these initiatives are sustainable and eventually integrated into corporate policy. Achieving this requires a significant cultural shift within the United Nations and any large bureaucracy, which is a slow and challenging process. However, there is growing recognition that mental health is a critical outcome influenced by organizational culture—both positive and negative.

By addressing mental health as part of broader organizational processes, we can argue that improvements in mental health will also enhance efficiency, coordination, staff engagement, and overall effectiveness. It’s important to communicate that this initiative is not just about mental health, but also about improving organizational processes.

What are the immediate, medium, and long-term objectives of this implementation?

The immediate objectives focus on scaling up effective practices identified through our scorecards. For instance, family support programs currently run by the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Bank are recognized as best practices. The plan is to collaborate with these agencies to extend their family support services to all UN agencies. We also want to quickly scale up and make sophisticated psychosocial risk programs available to every UN entity, utilizing existing networks like the Human Resource Network or the High-Level Committee on Management (HLCM).

In the medium term, we aim to address mental health stigma through a human rights approach rather than traditional stigma reduction methods, which have had mixed results. This involves utilizing diversity and inclusion teams that already exist within each agency, who are experts in human rights issues related to mental health, gender, LGBTQI matters, and race. Over time, we want to develop and promote these approaches to foster lasting change.

For the long term, the goal is to embed mental health considerations at the highest levels of UN management. By integrating mental health and well-being into corporate frameworks and enterprise risk management models, we aim to create a comprehensive approach that not only supports staff well-being, but also improves organizational effectiveness.

What is your role as Global Lead?

My main job is to scale up the good work that’s already happening. For instance, various UN agencies like UNHCR, WFP, and IOM have great programs on psychosocial risk. My role is to bring these programs together and create something that all these agencies can use, like a piece of software or a set of guidelines.

I can’t force anyone to use these tools, so part of my job is convincing people of their value. It’s crucial for senior management to buy into these ideas; otherwise, they might just end up as another report on the shelf. The goal is to show how addressing psychosocial risks isn’t just about mental health—it’s about improving overall workplace conditions, which in turn boosts staff engagement and efficiency.

I work to provide practical tools and strategies that agencies can start using right away. It’s a bit like being a salesperson, demonstrating the benefits of these tools and aligning them with the agency’s goals. I’m also part of an Implementation Board with like-minded people across the UN system, and we’re all working to integrate mental health into broader organizational strategies.

Our initiative is funded for a couple of years, and the idea is to embed these tools and practices into the agencies’ regular operations. The biggest challenge is coordinating the many different entities and making sure everyone is aligned.

How do you integrate mental health strategies into your daily work, whether it’s in your office or when dealing with other organizations?

In my daily work, it’s about more than just checking off boxes. It’s about genuinely looking at the processes we control and finding ways to improve them.

The goal is to introduce change in a way that feels natural and organic, not forced. This means helping people see why change is beneficial and guiding them to adopt it willingly.

For me, implementing this means being consistent and staying true to these principles in everything I do. It’s about making small, manageable adjustments rather than pushing for drastic overhauls.

In essence, my role involves connecting with others who share these values and bringing them together. It’s about creating a network of like-minded individuals who can collaborate and support each other.

A lot of people struggle with mental health issues in silence because of the stigma attached. Not just within the UN, but everywhere. What would you say to them? How should they handle this situation?

Stigma is a huge issue, and it’s true that stigma varies between cultures. In some places, it’s even more intense. People often fear being seen as weak or broken if they admit to mental health struggles.

But there are different ways to get support. You can look for professional help, like therapists or counselors, or you might find comfort in talking to friends or joining support groups. The key is to start opening up about what you’re going through. It can be empowering and make a big difference.

If you’re working in a place like the UN and are worried about how sharing your struggles might impact your career, know that there are systems in place to protect your confidentiality. The focus is on your well-being, and professionals there understand how to handle things discreetly.

It’s normal to have ups and downs, and seeking help doesn’t mean you’re broken. It’s just a part of being human. And sometimes, just talking about it can make a big difference