Introduction
Workplace mental health has long been viewed through an individual lens: one’s emotions, ability to manage stress, and “personal resilience.”. Yet recent research shows that this vision is too limited.
Workplace mental health is not only an individual experience: it is profoundly collective. Emotions, stress, cognitive load and behaviours spread and transform within teams. Work environments themselves — organisation, culture, relationships — play a decisive role.
This approach, now supported by neuroscience, social psychology and national surveys (Moka.care–Ifop 2025, Qualisocial 2025, FIRPS–Préventica 2025), opens a new field: Collective Mental Health.
It is from this perspective that C2D Prévention has structured an internal specialisation dedicated to this emerging domain.
Why Is Workplace Mental Health a Collective Phenomenon?
Organisational factors that shape collective mental health
The findings of the Grande Cause Nationale 2025 recall that most work-related psychological difficulties originate in the organisation rather than in individual fragility: sustained overload, value conflicts, lack of recognition, constant unpredictability, role ambiguity, and more.
These factors create environments where stress and exhaustion circulate between people.
We therefore cannot understand an employee’s psychological state without examining the collective system in which they operate.
Emotional contagion: how stress moves through teams
Emotions are not confined to one person: they spread.
Social psychology has long demonstrated that teams behave as “emotional systems,” where relational tone, fatigue or tension circulate rapidly.
Recent neuroscience findings presented at Préventica 2025 (FIRPS) reinforce this idea:
in certain situations, the brain circuits involved in stress — particularly the amygdala — activate synchronously within a group.
This explains why some teams “collapse all at once” while others show remarkable collective stability.
Why individual symptoms often reveal a collective issue
Research on depression and environmental factors (2025) shows that symptoms improve significantly when working conditions affecting the entire group — cognitive load, predictability, peer support — are modified, rather than when interventions focus solely on the individual.
The individual is never isolated: they are embedded in a system.
What Recent Studies (2020–2025) Tell Us About Collective Mental Health
Neuroscience and collective mental health: understanding group dynamics
FIRPS research presented in 2025 shows that stress reactions are not purely individual.
They are influenced by social signals: managerial behaviours, emotional climate, regularity of exchanges, and sense of psychological safety.
Interventions that target the organisation (clarity, work rhythms, cooperation) increase the collective ability to absorb difficulties.
Company surveys: collective indicators are more reliable
The Moka.care, GHU Paris et Ifop (2025) surveys highlight that collective-level assessment tools — barometers, weak signals, climate indicators — detect emerging risks more effectively than approaches centred on the individual. They make team dynamics visible, revealing early signs of tension, disengagement or widespread fatigue.
Psychological safety: a major determinant
The Qualisocial–Ipsos (2025) barometer emphasises the importance of psychological safety, meaning the ability to express doubts, problems or errors without fear of social consequences.
Teams with high psychological safety display better wellbeing, stronger cooperation and higher-quality decision-making.
Why Individual Approaches Are No Longer Enough to Prevent Psychosocial Risks
Individual measures (coaching, wellbeing programmes, ad-hoc support) are useful, but they address only part of the issue.
Three limitations emerge:
- They act downstream
They intervene once difficulties are already installed. - They do not modify the environment
An employee may learn to manage stress, but if the team operates under overload or tension, improvements will be temporary. - They can unintentionally isolate
By centring responsibility on the individual, one may imply that “it’s on them” to change, even when the causes are structural.
C2D Prévention’s Collective Mental Health Approach: an Integrated Methodology
C2D Prévention has developed an internal specialisation dedicated to Collective Mental Health (CMH) to address these challenges.
It is grounded in a simple vision:
prevention is effective when acting simultaneously on people, relationships, organisation, and culture.
This approach is structured around three dimensions.
Human dimension: shared psychological dynamics
This dimension focuses on understanding what circulates within teams: emotions, interpretations, needs, relational habits.
C2D draws on recent knowledge in social neuroscience and group psychology to:
- identify emotional contagion mechanisms,
- detect dynamics that amplify stress,
- avoid individual stigmatisation of symptoms.
The goal is to give teams a clear understanding of how they function.
Organisational dimension: acting on structural factors
CMH assesses elements that directly influence collective mental health:
- cognitive load and task simultaneity,
- coordination and role distribution,
- information flows,
- available support and arbitration, constraints in the field.
This is where prevention becomes concrete:
observing, dialoguing, adjusting, and co-constructing with managers and teams.
Cultural dimension: embedding psychological safety and collective vigilance
Here lies C2D’s longstanding expertise in continuous infusion:
a way of sustainably embedding prevention behaviours and mutual support.
This dimension aims to:
- strengthen safe communication,
- establish stable cooperation modes,
- create collective support reflexes, install shared vigilance within teams.
Culture then becomes a protective factor.
Collective Mental Health: Concrete Examples of Workplace Actions
The CMH approach translates into varied actions, always adapted to organisational realities:
- team workshops focused on relational dynamics,
- co-constructed collective diagnostics,
- managerial support,
- educational conferences,
- digital climate-monitoring tools,
- HR/HSE field analyses,
- continuous-infusion programmes.
The objective is simple: enabling teams to self-regulate in a sustainable and resilient way.
Conclusion
Collective Mental Health offers a more realistic and effective understanding of what teams experience today.
It shows that prevention can no longer be limited to individuals; it must address group dynamics, working conditions and the culture structuring relationships.
By developing a dedicated CMH specialisation, C2D Prévention proposes a human, organisational and cultural approach deeply anchored in recent scientific knowledge.
This perspective opens the way to more coherent, safer teams capable of facing contemporary work demands — together.
Key Takeaways
- Workplace mental health is a collective phenomenon, influenced by organisation, relationships, culture and emotional dynamics—far more than by “individual resilience”.
- Most work-related psychological difficulties have organisational origins: sustained overload, role ambiguity, lack of recognition, insufficient coordination and constant unpredictability.
- Stress circulates through teams: neuroscience and social psychology demonstrate the existence of emotional contagionand synchronised stress responses.
- Individual approaches are no longer sufficient to prevent psychosocial risks (PSR): they do not address structural causesand can unintentionally isolate employees.
- Collective Mental Health relies on three major levers: human dynamics, work organisation and culture (psychological safety, cooperation, shared vigilance).
- C2D Prévention proposes an integrated approach (SMC) that acts simultaneously on people, relationships, organisation and culture — through concrete actions such as collective diagnostics, workshops, managerial support, climate-monitoring tools and continuous infusion programmes.
- Well-supported teams become more coherent, more stable and more resilient, capable of sustainably preventing psychosocial risks.
What is Collective Mental Health at work?
Collective mental health refers to the psychological, emotional and relational mechanisms circulating within a team. It shows that an individual’s mental health strongly depends on work organisation, emotional climate, psychological safety and professional relationships.
Why is workplace mental health a collective rather than an individual phenomenon?
Because stress factors are primarily organisational (overload, lack of clarity, tensions, unpredictability) and emotions circulate within teams. Research in social psychology and neuroscience shows that teams function as interconnected emotional systems.
How does emotional contagion influence psychosocial risks (PSR)?
Emotional contagion means that an employee’s stress, fatigue or tension spreads quickly to the rest of the team. Studies even show synchronisation of stress-related brain activity within some groups. It is a major driver of PSR.
Why are individual approaches (coaching, stress management) no longer enough?
Because they do not address structural causes: work organisation, cognitive load, coordination, team culture. They intervene downstream and may unintentionally place responsibility on the individual when the problem is collective.
Which organisational factors impact collective mental health?
The main ones include:
- sustained overload
- role ambiguity
- simultaneous tasks
- lack of recognition
- insufficient coordination
- lack of psychological safety
- constant unpredictability
These factors create fertile ground for collective stress.
What is the role of psychological safety?
Psychological safety is a key determinant: it allows people to express doubt, problems or errors without fear. It improves cooperation, decision-making quality, and protects collective mental health.
How can psychosocial risks be prevented through a collective approach?
By acting simultaneously on:
- human dynamics (emotions, needs, interactions)
- work organisation (clarity, workload, roles, coordination)
- team culture (psychological safety, cooperation practices, shared vigilance)
This is exactly what C2D Prévention’s SMC approach offers.
What concrete actions can improve collective mental health in organisations?
Among the most effective interventions:
- team workshops
- collective diagnostics
- managerial support
- HR/HSE field analyses
- climate-monitoring tools
- continuous infusion programmes
These actions enable teams to become active agents of their own regulation.
What makes C2D Prévention’s SMC approach unique?
It is built on an integrated methodology grounded in recent knowledge from social neuroscience, group psychology and psychological safety. It addresses people, relationships, organisation and culture simultaneously, ensuring sustainable PSR prevention.
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