Make the asking stick.
The course is free for everyone. You pay for the light-touch system that keeps people asking every week, the support behind the people doing it, and the mark that shows it's real.
Training on its own fades.
People do a course, mean every word of it, then get busy. The first aider list on the noticeboard goes out of date, the group chat goes quiet, and the person who seemed fine still hasn't been asked properly. MANA is the bit that keeps it going after the course, without adding much to anyone's week.
Set up in a month, then it mostly runs itself.
The first 30 days
- 01
Tell us about your organisation. A short form for your teams, sites, shifts and headcount. It works out how many volunteers you need: at least one in ten people, at least one in every team, shift or site, and never fewer than two.
- 02
Volunteers take the free course. Volunteers only, nobody is made to do this, because someone told to ask is worse than nobody and people can tell. The form ticks them off as they finish.
- 03
Everyone knows who they are. We give you a ready-made page and poster with your volunteers' names on.
- 04
Your escalation route, in writing. Drafted from your answers, then checked with you on a 45-minute setup call: who gets told what, when, and what stays private.
- 05
Crisis numbers where people will see them. A poster with your name and sites, a block for your intranet and a pinned message in Slack or Teams.
- 06
One person responsible. Someone named, with the authority to act.
- 07
Volunteer kick-off. A short recorded explainer on what the role is and isn't, plus a 30-minute live Q&A with a real person.
Every week and every month
Three short messages in Slack or Teams. Nothing else to log into. Every message is written by a person.
| Who gets it | How often | What it says | What happens next |
|---|---|---|---|
| Everyone | Weekly | "How's your week going, honestly?" One tap. Plus "I'd like someone to check in on me" | Nobody sees the answer. If someone asks for a check-in, they pick a volunteer, and that volunteer gets a nudge to say hello. Nothing else is passed on |
| Volunteers | Weekly | "Anyone gone quiet this week? Worth asking twice." | A reminder, nothing to fill in |
| Volunteers | Monthly | "Did you check on anyone properly this month?" and "Anything heavy you want to talk through?" | Thirty seconds. A yes to the second one books a debrief automatically |
Once a quarter, everyone gets one anonymous question: "In the last three months, has anyone asked how you're really doing, and meant it?" That's the number that tells you whether it's working.
Nobody should be left holding it.
When someone tells a colleague something heavy, the colleague usually goes home and carries it on their own. MANA gives your volunteers somewhere to put it.
Monthly group supervision online, 60 to 90 minutes, shared with volunteers from other MANA workplaces.
One-to-one debrief calls of 30 minutes after a hard conversation, with a real person. A set number each year, depending on your size.
This is for your volunteers only. It isn't crisis support for staff. Anyone in crisis goes to the crisis numbers, your EAP or their GP.
Numbers, never anyone's answers.
The person responsible gets one page with all seven requirements of the MANA Standard showing green, amber or red, updated automatically. Underneath it sits the number that matters most: are your volunteers actually asking? If it drops, you get a prompt. If it stays low a second month, one of us calls you.
A one-page report for your board is generated every quarter.
You'll never see what anyone answered, who asked to be checked on, or what was said in any conversation. Team results only show when five or more people answered, so nobody can be worked out from them.
The layer before your EAP.
MANA doesn't replace your EAP, occupational health or Mental Health First Aiders. It's the bit that comes first, so more people actually reach them.
Already got first aiders? Good, keep them. A first aider network is a handful of people. MANA gets everyone close enough to notice asking, and gives your first aiders somewhere to take what they hear. They're part of it, not replaced by it.
How it compares
| Compared | MANA | Two-day first aid course | 30-minute suicide awareness |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who it's for | Everyone close enough to notice | A few named people | Anyone |
| Time to train | 90 minutes | Two days | 30 minutes |
| Training cost | Free | £300 to £390 a person, renewed every three years | Free |
| Keeps going after the course | Weekly check-ins, supervision, annual review | No | No |
Be one of our first five.
We're looking for UK workplaces of 50 to 250 people to run MANA for three months, free, with the price agreed upfront so there are no surprises. If you've already got first aiders and it doesn't feel like it's quite working, we'd especially like to hear from you.
Talk to us about a pilot