The Time to Change pledge is part of a UK campaign organised by mental health charities MIND and Rethink Mental Illness. Organisations are committing to making sure staff feel comfortable reporting or raising a mental health issue. And we're among the first housing associations to make the commitment.

We've also appointed a number of staff volunteers, who share a passion for the issue, as “stigma busters”. They'll work with management to advise and comment on opportunities and issues that can help address any challenges and opportunities.

The stigma busters joined our Chief Executive, Mark Perry at the official signing of the Time to Change pledge on World Mental Health day.

Mark Perry said: “Mental health-related factors accounted for 63 absences here at VIVID last year. And we lost 1052 days of work, approximately 10% of our sickness record. We’re not saying all of those were avoidable but it’s very likely less stigma might have helped.

“It's also great to be signing our pledge on World Mental Health Day as the wellbeing of our customers is a significant part of our purpose, along with building more houses. We’ve just appointed two new wellbeing offers to build links between communities and health support services.

“There’s too much stigma around mental health and too much around social housing. We can all do so much more.”

Staff workshops have already started around the topics of “honest conversations”, emotional wellbeing and resilience.

In the UK, mental ill-health is the leading cause of sickness, costing an average of £1,035 per employee per year and 48% of those who cited one or other form of mental illness said they would not talk to their employer about it.

Mark Perry added: “VIVID believes that together we can make a real difference to people who suffer from mental health problems and we encourage others to join us on this journey.”