According to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), work-related stress, anxiety, and depression lead to the loss of 13.7 million working days annually in the UK, resulting in a yearly cost of £28.3 billion. Closer to home, a survey by CIPHR found that Cambridge is the number one city in the UK for online searches related to burnout. As a global hub for life sciences and technology, highly educated skilled Cambridge employees within these sectors, complete complex and mentally challenging work on tight timescales that often leads to stress and burnout. To address this trend, we recognise the need to discuss and develop strategies to increase mental health resilience and neurodiversity in the workplace to achieve better outcomes for all.
As an employee-owned technical company, Cambridge Design Partnership is focused on broadening its understanding of mental health and neurodiversity, believing it is essential for cultivating a truly inclusive workplace.
Finlay Knops-Mckim, Consultant Electronic Engineer at Cambridge Design Partnership says “We employ talented individuals to solve complex problems for a myriad of clients - “one size fits all” doesn’t apply to us or our work. Pretending it did would lead to unhappy clients and burnt-out employees. On the other hand, understanding and managing for neurodiversity, different personalities, and tolerances to stress allow us to build strong teams that can see through even the most challenging projects. We want this day to serve as a forum for like-minded individuals from companies across Cambridgeshire – we can always do better, and collaborations like this will help us all thrive as we break new ground in engineering, tech, and life sciences.”
Louise Rushworth, Events Manager at Cambridge Network says “It’s been great collaborating with CDP on this event. I’m in the lucky position of curating topical events and meetings that I think are relevant, where our members have interesting and valuable stories to share. Mental health is an often-visited subject, but this new slant has been specifically tailored for highly skilled workers within a particular working environment. I’d also like to give special thanks to Camena Bioscience for sponsoring this event.”
Event highlights include a morning of expert talks, encompassing discussions on stress management, neurodiversity and fostering inclusive environments, from esteemed speakers including:
- Imogen Wall, Humanitarian, disaster response expert, qualified therapist and mental health instructor.
- Sonya Barlow: An award-winning founder of careers and inclusion consultancy @LMFNetwork, best-selling author of Unprepared to Entrepreneur, and a BBC presenter.
- The Richmond Fellowship, Laura Whitehouse: Neurodiversity in the Workplace.
The afternoon will offer a collaborative workshop run by Cambridge Design Partnership’s professional facilitators who will guide delegates in identifying current challenges across a range of topics to generate future best practices for mental resilience.
This invitation-only event is tailored for professionals in technical, scientific, and professional roles seeking to enhance their mental well-being and contribute to industry-wide best practices.
Event registration details:
Date: 20th September 2023.
Time: 9:30 - 16:00
Venue: Cambridge Design Partnership, Bourn Quarter, Wellington Way, Cambridge CB23 7FW
Cost: £60+VAT / person
As an invite-only event, if you would like to attend, please email louise.rushworth@cambridgenetwork.co.uk.
