Mental Health Awareness
Mental health around the globe
This year’s Mental Health Awareness Day (Monday 10th October) was championed by the World Health Organization (WHO) with the theme and focus on “Making Mental Health & Well-Being for All a Global Priority”. The world is reeling from the effects of several global catastrophes: the war in Ukraine, the still ever-present threat of COVID-19, and worsening storms, floods and draughts exacerbated by climate change. So, it’s no wonder that, around the globe, people’s mental health has taken a tumble.
One catastrophe felt in every corner of the world remains the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has created a global crisis for mental health, fuelling short and long term stresses and undermining the mental health of millions. Estimates put the rise in both anxiety and depression disorders at more than 25% during the first year of the pandemic. At the same time, mental health services have been severely disrupted and the treatment gap for mental health conditions has widened.
Mental health and the workplace
More than half the world’s population are currently in work and 15% of working-age adults live with a mental health disorder. Without effective support, mental health disorders and other mental health conditions can affect a person’s confidence and identity at work, capacity to work productively, absences and the ease with which to gain and retain employment. Twelve billion working days are lost every year to depression and anxiety alone. Depression and anxiety cost the global economy $1 trillion each year predominantly from reduced productivity.
There are multiple risks to employees’ mental health at work which can include:
· excessive workloads or work pace
· long, unsocial, or inflexible hours
· limited support from colleagues or authoritarian supervision
· discrimination and exclusion
· conflicting home/work demands
What is being done on a global scale
In 2022, WHO will publish the first ever global guidelines on mental health and work, which will include consideration of how to ensure safe, supportive, and decent working conditions that promote and protect mental health. The new guidelines identify three types of strategies.
Organisational interventions to reshape working conditions, for example by providing flexible working arrangements, promoting a healthy work-life balance, and reducing stigma in the workplace.
Mental health training for managers to strengthen supervisors’ knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviours so that they may better support their workers’ mental health needs.
Interventions for workers to increase individuals’ coping capacities, these may include stress management training as well as strategies to promote leisure-based physical activity.
Here in the UK
While the WHO has now acknowledged and solidified the need for mental health in the workplace, many companies have already taken measures to support their employee’s mental health needs.
One of the most vital starting points when it comes to addressing mental health in the workplace is to create a safe, non-judgemental, and supportive environment that allows employees to discuss their mental health struggles and needs with their managers.
It’s helpful if employers can create an environment where employees feel able to talk openly about mental health. For example, employers can:
· Treat mental and physical health as equally important
· Make sure employees have regular one-to-ones with their managers to talk about any problems they are having
· Encourage positive mental health by arranging mental health awareness training, workshops, or appointing mental health ‘champions’ or first-aiders who employees can speak t o
A new, emerging technology that is being utilised by employers are digital therapeutics (DTx). Digital therapeutics belong to a class of sophisticated, evidence-based software that can complement or even replace prescription drugs for managing certain health condition which include insomnia, depression, ADHD, and anxiety. Digital therapeutics do more than just the typical wellness app that only tracks certain needs such as mood, sleep, and exercise. While this class of wellness app are useful for those who wish to track their menstruation or implement a mediation routine, these apps are not backed by evidence-based research like digital therapeutics.
Another constructive approach to addressing mental health in the workplace is a program called Welbot. Like DTx, Welbot is an evidence based corporate workplace health and wellbeing platform designed to improve employee welfare at work. The software features daily physical and mental health exercises, online resources and signposting with real-time analytics and managing reporting.
So, to genuinely tackle mental health in the workplace, employees must establish a safe and caring environment along with evidence-based solutions such as DTx and other mental health programs that are easy for employees to access.
Communication is key
It is essential that proper communication is at the heart of addressing mental ill health in the workplace. Businesses’ need to effectively communicate the message that it’s ‘okay to talk’, and that employees facing challenges can talk to their managers or teams without fear or judgement, or that they may be penalised for the challenges they face.
Broader than this, business leaders must not shy away from talking openly about mental ill health, not necessarily from a deeply personal point of view, but by embracing a culture of openness in empowering their people to feel fully supported.
Mental health is a growing problem in the UK, and businesses must use their powers of communication to play a part in breaking down stigmas and fostering positive cultural change within their organisations.