HelpNAMI-NYC Launches Second Year of Wall Street Mental Health Collaborative for Financial Services Industry
New York, NY, February 21, 2023—NAMI-NYC is launching the second year of its Wall Street Mental Health Collaborative (Collaborative) designed exclusively for financial services providers. Participating companies have made a public commitment to reduce stigma surrounding mental health challenges for employees, and the business and financial communities at-large. Citi, Deutsche Bank, Houlihan Lokey, Mizuho, The Riverside Company, SMBC, and Värde Partners have all joined for year 2 and continue to lead the field in workplace mental health.
“We’re launching the second year of the NAMI-NYC Wall Street Mental Health Collaborative with a focus on incorporating workplace wellness during onboarding,” said NAMI-NYC CEO Matt Kudish. Last year, the Collaborative recognized the impact of creating mentally healthy work environments from the first day of employment, which became a new orientation framework called From Day 1.
“This past year, we learned tremendously about the barriers workers in financial industries might face and how we can tackle them,” shared Rachael Steimnitz, NAMI-NYC’s Director of Workplace Mental Health. During the first year, the Collaborative hosted a series of trainings, including a cross-generational discussion on how to support mental health for financial services employees of all ages. In the face of high stress jobs and added pressures from the pandemic, the Collaborative also participated in the #JustAsk campaign, offering training and resources for talking about suicide in the workplace.
From A Selection of Our Members
Christiana Riley, Member of the Management Board and Americas CEO, Deutsche Bank: “Engaging with our whole selves at work will only be possible by prioritizing mental wellbeing in the workplace, reducing the stigma around mental health topics and fostering better community engagement.”
Josh Friedlander, Chief Human Capital Officer, Houlihan Lokey: “Houlihan Lokey is proud to join the NAMI-NYC Wall Street Mental Health Collaborative in its efforts to educate, advocate, and overcome the obstacles that exist regarding mental health in the financial services workplace. Our people are our most important asset, and we believe strongly in the Collaborative’s mission, its successes to date, and its focus this year on prioritizing workplace mental health wellness as a meaningful element of the onboarding process.”
Jerry Rizzieri, President and CEO, Mizuho Securities USA: “Mizuho congratulates NAMI-NYC on a very successful first year of advocacy and education, helping to remove the stigma around discussions of mental health. We are proud to be part of the Collaborative of Wall Street firms supporting NAMI-NYC and its important work helping individuals and families affected by mental illness.”
Marie Suesse, Senior Managing Director, Global Head of Human Capital, Värde Partners: “We are encouraged by the success of the Collaborative’s inaugural year and pleased to see new organizations joining the collective commitment to address mental health stigma in the financial services industry. Värde employees shared overwhelmingly positive feedback on the sessions, which facilitated more candid conversations about mental health and ways we can support our colleagues.”
The Collaborative aims to change the culture surrounding employee mental health by:
- Reducing stigma so employees can show up as their full selves in the workplace;
- Increasing social support so employees feel psychologically safe sharing new ideas or asking for help when needed;
- Fostering community engagement and building trust so employees feel a deeper connection to each other, their employer, and create a sense of purpose and community.
In addition to networking opportunities to share learnings and enhance existing employee engagement activities, the second year of the Collaborative offers its financial services partners:
- Monthly Steering Committee meetings and networking opportunities
- Access to and implementation guidance for From Day 1, the innovative mental health onboarding initiative developed by and for financial services
- Five training programs available to all firm employees about topics related to workplace mental health
To sign onto the Wall Street Collaborative or learn more about NAMI-NYC’s Mental Health Initiative training opportunities, email rsteimnitz@naminyc.org.