A local expert is hoping professionals see the signs of unwellness in the workplace.
“The cost of missing it is not just productivity, but what we’re missing is opportunities to be able to help people,” she said. “We see burnout, absenteeism, presenteeism, conflict, disengagement, turnover, safety issues, mistakes, and accidents, and most importantly, suffering in silence, ” said Dr. Cheryl Cummings.
Dr. Cheryl Cummings is the Employee Wellness Service and Disability Manager for Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS).
She brought her mental health expertise to the May Women in Business luncheon sponsored by the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce.
Cummings cited a study that found 75% of workers in the U.S. reported experiencing one mental health challenge in the past year. It ranged from anxiety to depression, grief, and, to the extreme, thoughts of suicide. She said the stress follows workers into their jobs. Managers and coworkers needed to learn the signs.
The National Council of Mental Wellbeing is an organization with about 3,200 member treatment organizations, both mental health and substance abuse, around the world.
“They went over to Australia, and they saw this program called Mental Health First Aid (MHFA),” she explained. “In 2008, they came with books in hand, information in hand, knowledge in hand, and brought it here to the USA, and their goal was to make mental health first aid as common as first aid and CPR.”
MHFA is a training program that teaches skills needed to recognize when an individual is struggling with mental health or substance abuse challenges. To date, an estimated 4.5 million people in the U.S. are MHFA certified.
If instituted in the workplace, Cummings told ABD, it can serve as a powerful tool to attract and retain skilled employees. It is particularly effective if Millennials see an employer offering a supportive and nurturing environment.
“Our younger generation, our millennials, have no problem talking about mental health issues,” she said. “What I found is that our younger, millennial generation, that’s coming into the workforce, appreciates the fact that we are openly talking about mental health issues right now. Our younger generation, a lot of people who are becoming more mentally aware, appreciate the fact that organizations and jobs and departments are talking about and embracing mental health.”
MHFA is a skills-based training program that teaches a five-step action plan on how to recognize an individual who is struggling.
“That five-step action plan is assessing for the risk of suicide or harm, listening non-judgmentally, giving reassurance and information, encouraging appropriate professional help, encourage self-help and other support strategies as well,” said Cummings. “You’re diagnosing, you’re not treating, you’re not fixing, you’re just simply doing what we as humans already do. We simply notice, we check in with people when we see something maybe not quite right.”
Cummings said when MHFA training was launched on the site in 2023, it was for managers and leaders. Within two years, more than 300 managers were certified.
“In 2025, that is when we opened it up to the entire site. Any employee who wanted to take mental health first aid so they can recognize what those signs or symptoms had access to it. We increased employee engagement around wellness and psychological safety, and to date, we have over 250 employees trained,” she said.
In addition to working at SRNS, Cummings is the owner and clinical director of Stairway Counseling Services and founder of Future Generation Consulting and Training.
Two local organizations are members of the National Council for Mental Wellbeing. They are:
- Serenity Behavioral Health Systems
- Augusta, GA
- Aiken-Barnwell Mental Health Center
- Aiken, SC
More information about MHFA, and to sign up for training as an individual or organization, is at: www.thenationalcouncil.org/our-work/mental-health-first-aid/
