The Mental Health Toolkit

The Mental Health Toolkit allows work communities to build a human-centred work culture that promotes mental well-being. The tools provide a basis for the promotion and maintenance of mental work ability. The tools are free of charge and backed by research.

Photo of a toolkit with text The Mental Healt Toolkit.

What is the Mental Health Toolkit used for?

The ways in which a workplace can support mental health can be summarised on three levels:

Ensure the prerequisites for good work in daily situations at the workplace and prevent problems from emerging.
Address and solve any problems related to work and the work community when they are identified.
Support employees and modify work when mental health challenges arise.

The Mental Health Toolkit is particularly suitable for ensuring the prerequisites for good work and solving problems as part of the daily life of a work community. The tools can be used for:

assessment of job burnout risk
development of work ability management
assessment of the organization's recovery practices
development of the work community’s resilience
formulation of your own overview of well-being at work

and for many other situations!

Learn more about the tools

Tools for promoting mental health and work ability

Survey the risk of burnout in your own organization.

For whom: For large workplaces
Duration: 5 minutes to respond + summarizing results and development measures
Contents: 12 questions related to symptoms of burnout (exhaustion, mental distancing, cognitive impairment and emotional impairment)
Result: Results of the organisation compared to results of the How is Finland doing? study

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Identify and prioritize development areas in work ability management.

For whom: The survey is aimed at management, supervisors, HR management, occupational safety and health, and shop stewards. There is a version of the tool for small and large workplaces.
Duration: 10 minutes + development measures
Contents: A total of 38 questions on five areas of work ability management. The result consists of responses from at least 10 respondents. The contact person of the organization will share the survey link to the respondents.
Result: A traffic light assessment about work ability management and means for its development.

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Ensure that operational models of the workplace promote recovery.

For whom: For work communities
Duration: Approximately 30 minutes. In addition, reserve some time to study the feedback and discuss it with the personnel.
Content: Questions about recovery practices for the unit supervisor. The questions should be answered together with personnel representatives. There is also a version of the calculator for social welfare and health care sector.
Result: The calculator provides the user immediate feedback and steps to start the development work.

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Strengthen the work community's ability to prepare for and adapt to change situations.

For whom: The test and workshops are intended for the entire work community to do together. The workshops can be lead, for example, by the management, supervisors or professionals in safety, strategy or HR.
Duration: Test approx. 1.5 hours, workshops 1–2 hours + development measures.
Content: The Workplace Resilience Test and three alternative workshops.
Result: An overview of the organization’s resilience and jointly agreed on measures for developing change readiness.

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Survey the characteristics and exercise opportunities of your workplace.

For whom: Managers, supervisors, HR, occupational health care, occupational safety and health and personnel representatives.
Duration: Responding to the survey c. 10 minutes + development measures.
Content: A survey in five stages, personalised feedback and further reading based on the answers.
Result: Tips for exercise that is appropriate for the workplace and promotes recovery.

Draw up a varied substance abuse programme as part of work ability management and planning of occupational health care operations.

For whom: HR, managers, occupational safety and health, employee representatives and occupational health care. Duration: Drawing up a standard substance abuse programme approximately 15 minutes, a tailored programme approximately 2 hours.
Content: A standard template that can be customized to suit your organization if desired.
Result: Guidance that supports the prevention of substance abuse and addiction problems in the workplace.

Developing the well-being of a work community and bolstering a human-centred work culture requires long-term commitment. Even small tangible actions are important. For example, one unit or team at the workplace can try a tool with a low threshold, and many of the tools that are suitable at the team level can be implemented directly.
The company's executive team should discuss the Mental Health Toolkit and the opportunities that using it offer.
The tools are different, so the processes for implementing them vary. The individual tool pages contain tips for using the tools and examples of appropriate processes.

Issues with well-being at work and absences due to mental health can pose challenges in work life. That is why your workplace's management is certainly interested in hearing about ways in which the matter could be processed at the workplace. The Mental Health Toolkit is a way to ensure accurate identification of work-related risks to mental well-being and provide ways to reduce those risks. Modern management understands the significance of mental health at work and, in addition to risks, view their personnel's resources as part of the strategic goals of the workplace.
The free-of-charge tools can be used as part of work ability management. They can be used, for example, to survey the current situation at the workplace, improve understanding of issues raised in the workplace survey or well-being at work survey, acquire additional tools for processes or development and content for training or create permanent operating models.
Make the tools easily available to supervisors. Link the tools to supervisors’ instructions, orientation material or the early intervention model, for example. Supervisor training and information packages are also good places to offer the tools.
The tool pages provide information on the intended use of the tools, tips on how to use them and various implementation processes.

Occupational safety and health personnel can promote well-being at work in many different ways as part of their own work. They can promote practices that bolster safety and well-being at the workplace by disseminating information and developing guidelines and practices.
The tools in the toolkit should be used to assess and manage risks and hazards. The tools help develop measures for reducing or eliminating risks.

Tools appropriate for an individual employee include the "How are you feeling?" well-being at work test and the work meaningfulness barometer (to be published in early 2026).
Tell your supervisor or the HR person at your workplace about a tool that you think is suitable for your work community by sending a link to the tool’s page.