Mental Health Awareness Challenge
A 21-day, opt-in contest where coworkers share a self-care ritual or a “what helps me” tip for Mental Health Awareness Month, and the community votes on the most helpful ideas.
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Overview
This template is a submission contest for Mental Health Awareness Month. Employees share a self-care ritual, a boundary-setting habit, or a “what helps me” tip, and coworkers vote on the ideas that feel most useful, relatable, or encouraging. The structure is individual, opt-in, and award-based, with a badge prize and ranked points for the top submissions.
Use it when you want a gentle culture activity that opens conversation without asking people to disclose private mental health details. It works well for May campaigns, hybrid teams, and workplaces that want a supportive, low-pressure way to surface practical coping strategies from real coworkers. Because the contest is based on community votes, it can highlight ideas that resonate broadly rather than rewarding the loudest voice.
Do not use this template as a therapy substitute, a screening exercise, or a place to collect personal medical information. It is also not a fit for punitive ranking, manager-led evaluation, or any format that would make employees feel obligated to share sensitive experiences. Keep the prompt simple, keep participation voluntary, and make it clear that general wellness tips are welcome while personal disclosures are optional. The best version of this contest leaves people with a few concrete ideas they can actually try, plus a shared sense that mental health conversations can be normal, respectful, and workplace-safe.
Standards & compliance context
- Keep the contest voluntary and avoid any implication that employees must disclose mental health conditions or personal treatment details.
- Do not use the results for performance management, attendance discipline, or any employment decision.
- If your workplace has privacy, HR, or works-council requirements, review the prompt and moderation rules before launch to ensure the activity is clearly supportive and non-evaluative.
- Avoid collecting sensitive health information in free-text fields unless your policies explicitly allow it and you have a lawful basis to process it.
General regulatory context for orientation only — verify current requirements with counsel or the relevant agency before relying on this template for compliance.
How to use this template
- 1. Set the contest window to 21 days in May and publish a short, voluntary prompt asking people to share one self-care ritual or “what helps me” tip.
- 2. Configure the contest as individual, submission-based, and community-voted, with managers excluded from participation if you want to keep the tone peer-to-peer.
- 3. Ask entrants to keep submissions practical and non-clinical, such as a boundary, routine, or support habit they use, and remind them not to include private medical details.
- 4. Open voting during the campaign and surface the highest-ranked ideas so coworkers can discover tips that feel realistic and easy to adopt.
- 5. Close the contest, award the badge prize to the top submissions, and save the best entries as a reusable internal resource for future wellness campaigns.
Best practices
- Keep the prompt focused on everyday coping habits, not diagnoses, treatment stories, or anything that would pressure people to disclose personal information.
- Use opt-in participation and avoid manager involvement so employees do not feel watched, evaluated, or expected to perform vulnerability.
- Moderate submissions for tone and remove anything that is dismissive, clinical, or likely to trigger debate instead of support.
- Encourage short, concrete entries such as a walk break, calendar boundary, breathing routine, or end-of-day shutdown ritual.
- Make the voting criteria clear so people vote for ideas they would actually try, not for popularity or seniority.
- Close the contest on schedule and publish a recap so the activity feels like a bounded awareness campaign rather than an ongoing leaderboard.
- Treat the winning entries as a resource library for future wellness communications, onboarding, or manager toolkits.
What this template typically catches
Issues teams running this template most often surface in practice:
Common use cases
Frequently asked questions
What is included in this Mental Health Awareness Challenge template?
This template is a submission contest for Mental Health Awareness Month where individuals share a self-care ritual or a “what helps me” coping tip. Coworkers vote on the entries they find most useful or relatable, and the contest awards a badge to the top-ranked submissions. It is designed to normalize conversation without requiring anyone to disclose personal details.
Who should run this contest?
An HR, People Ops, internal communications, or culture lead typically runs it. Because the template excludes managers, it works best when the organizer is there to facilitate participation, moderate submissions, and keep the tone supportive rather than evaluative. It is a good fit for a lightweight month-long campaign, not a performance program.
How often should this contest run?
The template is set for 21 days, which fits a short awareness campaign and keeps participation focused. It is best used as an annual Mental Health Awareness Month activity rather than an always-on leaderboard. If you repeat it, refresh the prompt so people are not asked to resubmit the same advice every cycle.
Is this appropriate for regulated or sensitive workplaces?
Yes, if you keep it voluntary, non-clinical, and supportive. The prompt should invite general self-care ideas or “what helps me” tips, not disclosures about diagnoses, treatment, or medical history. You should also avoid any language that pressures employees to share personal struggles or rank vulnerability.
What are the most common mistakes with a mental health contest like this?
The biggest pitfall is turning a gentle awareness activity into a forced disclosure exercise. Another common mistake is using manager participation or public ranking in a way that makes people feel exposed. Keep the contest opt-in, moderate submissions for tone, and remind participants that practical coping ideas are welcome, but personal details are not required.
Can I customize the voting or prize setup?
Yes. This template uses community votes and a badge prize, but you can adjust the points by rank, the submission prompt, or the display copy to match your culture. If you want a quieter format, you can keep the same structure and simply reduce visibility or limit voting to a smaller audience.
How does this compare with an ad-hoc Slack thread or email ask?
An ad-hoc thread can collect ideas, but it is easy for good submissions to get buried and hard to summarize afterward. This template gives you a clear start and end date, a defined submission format, and a voting mechanism so the most resonant ideas surface. It also creates a reusable record of coping ideas that can be revisited later.
Can this be used outside Mental Health Awareness Month?
Yes, but the seasonal framing is strongest in May. If you reuse it at another time, rename the campaign and adjust the prompt so it matches the occasion, such as a stress-management week or a wellness theme. The structure still works as long as participation stays voluntary and the tone remains supportive.
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