The Three Types of Support That Protect Mental Health at Work

Talking About Support vs. Offering It

Most workplaces today talk about mental health more openly than ever before. There are wellbeing initiatives, resilience workshops, and messages about “checking in.” But when someone actually struggles, when they show up flat, distracted, or quietly overwhelmed, many colleagues and managers freeze. We want to help, but we don’t always know how.

True support isn’t about offering solutions or pep talks. It’s about recognising the core human needs that underpin mental health: connection, stability, and clarity.

Research consistently shows that three types of support: emotional, practical, and informational, make the biggest difference (Cohen & Wills, 1985; Halbesleben, 2006). When these are balanced, people are more resilient, collaborative, and confident. When they’re missing, even the strongest performers start to struggle.

In Practice: An Example

When Priya noticed her colleague Sam had been quieter than usual, she didn’t ignore it. She took a moment after a meeting to ask gently: “Hey, you seem a bit off lately. How are you going?” Sam admitted he’d been feeling stretched, deadlines kept moving, and he wasn’t sure what was expected anymore.

Instead of trying to fix it, Priya listened (emotional support), helped clarify which projects could be paused (practical support), and later sent him information about the company’s wellbeing policy and flexible work arrangements (informational support).

A week later, Sam said, “Thanks for asking. I’m still busy, but I don’t feel like I’m drowning.”

Priya didn’t do anything extraordinary. She just used the three types of support that matter most.

1. Emotional Support: Connection and Validation

Emotional support is about empathy and presence. It’s the human act of noticing, listening, and acknowledging what someone feels without trying to fix it.

It says: “You’re not alone in this.”

When people feel seen and understood, their stress levels drop. They’re more likely to speak up early, seek help, and recover faster.

Leaders who offer emotional support create trust and psychological safety: the foundation for performance, creativity, and wellbeing (Edmondson, 1999).

How to offer it:

• Listen before giving advice.
• Validate feelings: “That sounds really hard,” or “I can understand why that’s stressful.”
• Check in privately, not performatively.
• Follow up after difficult periods, it shows genuine care.
• As a leader, model openness. Share small examples of your own stress or uncertainty.
  

Try asking:

“What’s been hardest for you lately?”
“What kind of support would feel helpful right now?”

Avoid: Minimising (“You’ll be fine!”), comparing (“Others have it worse”), or problem-solving too early.

Support starts with understanding.

2. Practical Support: Reducing the Load

Even when someone feels emotionally supported, recovery or coping is hard if demands stay excessive. Practical support makes wellbeing possible.

It’s about helping people have the time, resources, and energy they need to function well.

Practical support signals that mental health isn’t just a talking point, it’s built into how the organisation actually operates.

How to offer it:

• Adjust workloads, deadlines, or tasks when pressure peaks.
• Encourage people to take leave or use available supports.
• Offer flexibility such as remote options, shorter days, or modified duties.
• Step in to remove systemic barriers that keep people stuck (e.g., unclear approvals, bottlenecks).
• Normalise recovery as part of performance: taking breaks, using EAP, and setting boundaries.
  

For leaders: Ask yourself "What would make it easier for this person to do their best work right now?"

For colleagues: Sometimes practical support is as simple as saying, “I’ll handle the meeting notes,” or “Want me to grab you a coffee?” Small gestures lighten the load more than you think.

Avoid:  Taking over completely or assuming you know what’s needed. Over-helping can create dependency or make people feel incompetent.

3. Informational Support: Clarity Reduces Anxiety

Uncertainty is one of the biggest stressors in any workplace. Informational support provides the clarity people need to feel grounded and confident.

It includes feedback, updates, and guidance. This is anything that helps someone understand what’s happening and what comes next.

When information is clear, people spend less energy worrying and more energy doing.

How to offer it:

• Communicate early, even if all details aren’t final.
• Be transparent about changes, roles, and expectations.
• Share context for decisions (“Here’s why we’re shifting priorities”).
• Provide constructive feedback focused on growth, not criticism.
• Make wellbeing resources visible and accessible.
  

For leaders: When in doubt, over-communicate. Silence leaves space for worry and assumption.

For peers: Share what you know and point people toward accurate information instead of gossip or guesswork.

Avoid: Drip-feeding information or “protecting” people from bad news. Transparency, even when difficult, is almost always safer for mental health than uncertainty.

The Interplay: Why All Three Matter

Each type of support meets a different psychological need. Emotional support nurtures connection and belonging, practical support provides stability and capacity, and informational support delivers clarity and control. When all three are present, people feel both cared for and capable: a combination that protects mental health and boosts confidence.

If one type is missing, however, wellbeing can falter. Too much emotional support without practical help can feel comforting but ineffective. Overloading someone with practical help without empathy can feel cold or transactional. And clarity without care can feel mechanical or even threatening.

The key is balance: noticing what someone needs in the moment, and offering the right mix of listening, helping, and informing. This is how support becomes meaningful rather than just well-intentioned.

Building a Culture of Everyday Support

You don’t need a big wellbeing program to make this real. Culture is created through micro-moments. Small, everyday actions that signal care and psychological safety.

• It’s the manager who says, “Take the afternoon off and regroup"
• It’s the colleague who quietly checks in and listens.
• It’s the leader who explains a difficult change openly rather than avoiding the topic.

These moments build trust, belonging, and shared accountability for wellbeing.

Try this as a team reflection:

• What does “support” look like here in practice?
• When have we got it right and when have we missed it?
• How can we make it easier to ask for (and give) the right kind of help?

Small shifts in behaviour often have the biggest ripple effects.

Final Thoughts

Mental health at work isn’t built through grand gestures. It’s built through how we show up every day. Support doesn’t have to be complicated. Sometimes the simplest question changes everything:

“What would be most helpful for you right now, someone to listen, someone to help with the workload, or some clarity about what’s next?”

That question alone can transform how safe, seen, and supported someone feels at work.

How We Can Help

At the 11th hour clinic, we help workplaces move beyond awareness into action. Through training, coaching, and evidence-based consulting, we equip leaders and teams to provide the right kind of support, at the right time.

Because healthy teams aren’t just resilient, they are supported.

Contact us today to learn how we can help your organisation strengthen psychological safety and mental health from the inside out.

References

Cohen, S., & Wills, T. A. (1985). Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 98(2), 310–357.

House, J. S. (1981). Work Stress and Social Support. Addison-Wesley.

Halbesleben, J. R. B. (2006). Sources of social support and burnout: A meta-analytic test of the conservation of resources model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(5), 1134–1145.

Edmondson, A. C. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383.

Eisenberger, R., Stinglhamber, F., Vandenberghe, C., Sucharski, I. L., & Rhoades, L. (2002). Perceived supervisor support and employee retention. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(3), 565–573.

Beehr, T. A., Bowling, N. A., & Bennett, M. M. (2010). Occupational stress and failures of social support: When helping hurts. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 15(1), 45–59.

Sonnentag, S., & Fritz, C. (2015). Recovery from job stress: The stressor–detachment model. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36(S1), S72–S103.*

Viswesvaran, C., Sanchez, J. I., & Fisher, J. (1999). The role of social support in the process of work stress: A meta-analysis. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 54(2), 314–334.