Here's What the Evidence Says

It's a fair question, and one worth answering honestly rather than with a big claim that doesn't hold up.

The scale of the problem

HSE's 2024/25 statistics found stress, depression and anxiety accounted for 62% of all working days lost to work-related ill health, 22.1 million days in total. Deloitte's most recent report puts the total annual cost of poor mental health to UK employers at £51 billion, with presenteeism (people at work but not really coping) the single largest cost at £24 billion.

That last figure matters. Presenteeism costs more than absence itself.

What the evidence actually supports

Mental Health First Aid training doesn't cure stress or replace clinical support. What it does, reliably, is change how early a problem gets noticed and how quickly someone feels able to say something.

That earlier conversation is the lever that matters. Long absences and severe presenteeism tend to follow periods where a struggling employee felt unable to raise it, or where nobody around them recognised what was happening until it became a crisis.

Trained first aiders and confident managers shift that timeline. They can't promise a reduction in absence figures on their own, but they remove one of the biggest barriers to someone getting support before things escalate.

The honest summary

Mental Health First Aid isn't a fix for sickness absence by itself. It's one part of a wider approach, alongside clear policies, manager training and proper stress risk assessments.

What it reliably delivers is earlier conversations and less isolation for people who are struggling. Given how much presenteeism alone is costing UK businesses, that's not a small thing.