Mental Health – In The Workplace

It is estimated by the WHO (World Health Organisation) that over 450 million people currently suffer from mental health across the world.

This is a huge number and does not include those who may experience mental health issues later in their life or those who haven’t found the strength to voice their struggle yet.

With such a large number across the world, there is one place that should be ensuring that everyone has access to support when they need it.

Workplaces. Employers have a duty of care to the people who work for them and effective support should always be available. In my opinion, this is a particularly important point to make; that the support is effective, that it is being treated as more than just a tick box exercise for employers.

Mental health support in the workplace is far more important than many employers may realise. Even without the enormous benefits to people’s health and wellbeing, (which is reason enough to have an effective system in place, I might add) do you know how much it’s costing you not to have this support in place?

Well luckily this has already been researched and it is estimated that through the loss of productivity that comes from mental health and not having that effective support in place costs the global economy one trillion per year.

Negative work environments hurt your profits and even worse they hurt the people working for you. Even people who have had no mental health issues before can develop them in such toxic places.

Very sadly I have experienced a few of these places myself and know of countless others who have encountered them too and the effect it can have on you is crippling.

Employers need to first and foremost realise that without healthy employees (not just physically but mentally and emotionally too), you won’t have a company for long.

It is imperative to invest in support for your employees; not just a gym membership to keep their body active but support in place to aid their mental and emotional wellbeing too.

For every one pound put into scaling up support options, it is estimated to have a return of four pounds in the increased health and productivity of your employees.

To anyone who is out there in the world, working and trying to earn a living, to make something of yourself, to just get by and pay the monthly bills without needing to overextend yourself financially.

If you are not receiving support from your employer or do not know how to access their support, then please do not be afraid to ask them. Do not be afraid to demand support, demand change, demand a system is put in place.

So many things happen at work on a daily basis that it can easily become overwhelming and it can lead to awful events if we don’t have a chance to work through it.

Only recently I learned that a past colleague of my partners had committed suicide at work and this is something that should have been preventable had the correct support been available.

This is a large, difficult and often confusing issue that obviously cannot be solved in the blink of an eye.

It is not only up to employers to solve the issues, it requires a lot of different places and people coming together to help, but employers are a piece of the puzzle.

It is also true that many of us work from home, or work as freelance professionals, as the world changes, working practices are changing too.

Some of us don’t have a fixed workplace or just one employer, maybe you don’t have an employer at all and work for yourself.

Whatever and however you work, your health is the most important thing, so find your courage and ask someone, anyone for help if you need it.

Remember, as a wise old wizard once taught us, that “Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”

Stay safe and well everyone and as usual a few resources which may help:

•     https://www.mind.org.uk/workplace/mental-health-at-work/taking-care-of-your-staff/useful-resources/
•     https://www.mentalhealthatwork.org.uk
•     https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/publications/managing-mental-health-workplace