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CCIC wins SIRA funding for a mental health program

By 24/02/2022March 7th, 2022No Comments

Central Coast Industry Connect (CCIC) has entered into a funding agreement with the State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA) as part of their Recovery Boost Grant Program to deliver the “Better for Business Central Coast” program, an industry led initiative that seeks to understand mental health in small and medium sized business in the region.

CCIC is partnering with the Local Health district (Mental Health District), Central Coast Suicide Prevention Alliance and the University of Newcastle to deliver this important project.

CCIC’s application was based on research that shows SME Business owners struggle to implement workplace health promotion and they find it difficult to engage in workplace mental health activities. There is so muchinformation on the mental health in the public domain that SME business owners do not have the capacity northe time to seek this information out. It is difficult for business owners to find the appropriate resources andthen implement them

While subject matter expertise regarding mental health, well-being and addressing stigma within theworkplace exists within parts of our community such as the local health service and larger businesses there isnot a formal mechanism to link this knowledge to the small business sector.

This could lead to SMEs business owners seeing mental health as a problem and not an opportunity. Within a supportive environment, employees with mental health issues are less likely to leave employment enabling small businesses to retain skilled staff.

While subject matter expertise regarding mental health, wellbeing in addressing stigma within the workplace, exists within parts of our community such as the local health service and larger businesses, there is not a formal mechanism to link this knowledge to the small business sector.

The aim of the project is to deeply understand the challenges and opportunities for the access and implementation of mental health resources and workplace mental health promotion strategies in small businesses.

The project will focus on engaging with SME business owners by establishing focus groups through CCIC’s membership database of local business owners. Employing an empathy-driven, user-centric approach with these groups will develop deep insights into the challenges and barriers they experience in accessing and implementing mental health related resources and programs and how and what needs to be done to have mental health and well-being integrated in their day to day work for the benefit of them and their staff.

The project will commence on the 1st March and conclude on 1st November 2022.

As part of our application process we did a pitch video which you can see Here.

 

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