Free Mental Health Resources Founders Should Know About

As a founder, launching or scaling your startup can be both gratifying and tremendously stressful as you are responsible for your startups success or failure. Founding a startup is a unique experience which involves significant financial, social and emotional stress. According to Monash University, 72% of entrepreneurs report mental health concerns. Unfortunately, founders who are actively working with therapists or physiatrists are low, with female founders more likely to enlist support.  

There is a growing recognition that mental wellbeing is essential to the success of your startup, which is why it is important to seek support. If left unaddressed, the demands of running a startup can place you at risk of burnout or long-lasting mental health challenges. Whether you are feeling the effects of stress or depression, or if you just want to stay on top of your wellbeing, we have constructed a list of free tools you can access:

Ahead for Business 

Ahead for Business, funded by the Australian Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources, is a hub developed to support small businesses and startups. It provides customised resources, peer support, check-ups, networking opportunities and action plans. By using the intuitive interface, founders can access ‘support for myself’, ‘support for someone else’ and ‘support for adverse events’. 

Heads Up 

Heads Up is a free service developed by Beyond Blue and supported by the Mentally Healthy Workplace Alliance. The program – tailored toward founders, startups and small business –offers a wide range of resources and tools to enhance mental wellbeing. Through the service, founders are able to set achievable goals and identify areas of risk using a personalised action plan. The platform’s objective is to create a mentally healthy working environment for all members of a startup.  

NewAccess for Small Business Owners 

NewAccess for Small Business Owners is a free and confidential mental health program, developed by Beyond Blue to support founders experiencing stress, burnout or mental health concerns. Over six structured sessions, coaches with a small business background will assist you in managing stress and will provide practical skills for healthy functioning. The sessions can be accessed over the phone with the initial consultation running for 60 minutes and the subsequent sessions running for 30 minutes weekly. 

Between the long work hours, loneliness, financial strain and additional demands of administrative and government regulations, it is unsurprising that founders are facing significant mental health concerns. Rather than attempt to tackle everything on your own, we recommend seeking professional help from a mental health service.   

Need help? Give us a call. 

At Allied Legal, we specialise in startups and small businesses. Our startup lawyers are attuned to the stresses and concerns faced by founders on a daily basis. If you need support for your venture, please feel free to contact our startup lawyers on 03 8691 3111 or send us an email at hello@alliedlegal.com.au for a free consultation.   

You may also like our article Key Challenges of Launching a Startup.