Understanding the distinctiveness between Mental Health In The Workplace Interventions can benefit society make the right decision when it comes to the crunch.
The explosion of smartphone health apps has led to a huge number of apps for mental health and wellbeing – but how good are they? With the close of the NHS Health Apps Library, there’s no longer a trusted go-to resource for identifying high quality apps. Each organization, employee and situation is unique, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Employers should determine what solutions best fit your organization’s and employee’s needs through analysis. Positive and open team cultures support mental wellbeing. Employees are often afraid to discuss their mental health issues with their work colleagues and line managers - and this is often due to the risk of being treated differently or discriminated against. Whereas once talking about mental health was considered taboo, conversations about mental wellbeing are now commonplace in the public and in the media, with high-profile celebrities and public figures openly discussing their mental health experiences. Changing a workplace culture, even if just the micro-culture within one team or department, takes time.
The ultimate human cost is loss of life through suicide. We know that rates of poor mental health and suicide are higher for employees in certain industries though clearly there are a number of factors which contribute to such trends. For example, suicide rates among men working in construction and decorating are more than 35% more likely to take their own lives, and female nurses are 24% more likely to commit suicide than the national average for women. Despite the evolution that’s occurred throughout the years, there is still misunderstanding, mishandling and miscategorization of the behavior of people when it comes to mental health and mental illness. This is apparent in society in general, and prolific in the workplace. And, these misunderstandings are the foundation of many roadblocks that make people nervous to talk about their mental health or mental illness at work. Stress is an adverse reaction to excessive pressures or demands in your work life, home life or both. Prolonged periods of stress can adversely affect the way you feel, your behaviour and your health. At work, it is vital that your employer addresses stress by tackling the root causes of any stress that your work is causing or exacerbating. Only support and strategic leadership from the top will create organisational cultures where management styles based on openness and mutual respect can flourish. The senior management team will influence how managers throughout an organisation see their jobs and the extent to which they place a priority on people management. An opinion on workplace wellbeing support is undoubtebly to be had in every workplace in the country.
Performance Pressure
Poor mental health costs the government a lot of money. This is money that is paid out in benefits, the cost to the National Health Service and less money coming in from tax because people are not working. This costs the government between £23 billion and £27 billion each year. The reduction of health risks for physical conditions needs to be complemented with action to prevent and address mental ill health, an often-ignored reality in the workplace. Mental ill health is a condition of the brain that should not be treated differently than other chronic health conditions, such as heart disease or cancer. Since being social is an essential part of human nature, people will find ways to socialize despite what their organization legislates. Do you want a culture of private gripe sessions? Or do you want to make the most of human nature and build a net thriving culture with people who trust each other? Workplace wellbeing programs are integral for an organisation's staff, encouraging and promoting health and wellbeing. Success at work is measured in many ways. Hitting productivity goals, achieving financial gains, completing projects on time—these are some of the ways a company knows it’s doing well. Employees are key to reaching these success measures, and the importance of their mental health can’t be ignored in the pursuit of success. Even though it may not be easy to become an employee-centric company addressing managing employees with mental health issues it is of utmost importance in this day and age.
With a national conversation around mental illness on the rise—and knowledge that over 18% of adults in the United States experience some form of anxiety disorder—it’s no surprise that workplaces are starting to join the conversation. Employers should ensure all line managers have information and training about managing mental health in the workplace. Not sharing a mistake or a learning with the wider team can be because an employee is scared of speaking out. There are various reasons why employees don’t speak up - from not knowing the process for airing problems to feeling ashamed. There are many things managers and employers can do to create a speak-up culture, where those struggling with mental health will feel comfortable asking for help. Workplace wellness, mental health, mental illness, and wellbeing—these words are now commonly seen in the news and social media, shown to be among the core values of organizations. Subjects such as workplace wellbeing ideas can be tackled by getting the appropriate support in place.
Investment In Mental Health
Most modern work doesn't have objective conditions for belonging. It's not very clear what's enough. Mental health in the workplace is an area that can have huge positive knock-on effects to the business and research increasingly highlights the positive link between positive mental wellbeing and effectiveness at work. Talking about sensitive issues takes a lot of courage. If your employee is confiding in you, it means they trust you. This is also information that they probably don’t want the entire office to know about. To ensure confidentiality, you can create strict laws about sharing information. You can also discuss with them how much they would like to be shared with their peers. Supporting mental wellness is now more important than ever. A 2020 report by the American Psychological Association found that stress levels are at an all-time high, significant enough to be considered a national mental health crisis. Those companies that aren’t working to solve the problem are likely contributing to it. Companies would be remiss to underestimate the importance of discussing mental health at work. Creating wellness solutions to help their employees thrive is the first step. Similarly, employees can also encourage their employers to offer mental health programs at work. For employers not investing in wellbeing initiatives, employers duty of care mental health can be a difficult notion to comprehend.
We will all be touched by mental ill health at some stage in our lives and some of us live with a mental health condition. Leaders and managers must build their levels of confidence around mental health issues to better include people with mental ill health in our teams, and to enable appropriate support of employees during illness and recovery. Training in workplace mental health can take many forms: induction processes, staff handbook modules, specialist supervision, intranet hosted or even lunch and learns. Training can be internal but there are also a range of options for bringing in effective external support to deliver training to be better at understanding and responding to their own and others mental heath issues. Leaders can speak to the importance of mental health on all hands, in communications around benefits and during awareness months related to mental health. It’s important also to equip managers as many times they will be the person an employee is most likely to open up to about a challenge they are facing. Management behaviour is often highlighted as a major factor by those suffering from work-related stress. Employees whose line managers have learnt good people management skills are more likely to develop healthier ways of coping with the competing pressures on their time. The result is higher levels of wellbeing and resilience, which can help to prevent more serious mental health issues. Designing break out areas and coworking spaces to inspire communication can further improve productivity levels in your office. These spaces encourage idea sharing and teamwork to promote positive work relationships. An open plan office keeps lines of communication open and supports information sharing between teams. Communication that emphasizes that leadership cares about concepts such as Wellbeing for HR should be welcomed in the working environment.
A Leading Cause Of Lost Work Hours
In the workforce, people are often judged by their productivity, and anything that interferes with that — like needing to take time off for their mental health, for instance — can be viewed as a nuisance. This is why many workers have a hard time asking for mental health accommodations, or even mentioning that they live with one or more mental health conditions. Historically, organizations have tended to pretend that an individual’s mental health issues aren’t a factor in the workplace. Now people are becoming more aware of the need to provide some form of intervention much sooner. Creating a buddy or mentoring system can help someone who is struggling at work. This can be a formal or informal process. One can uncover more info on the topic of Mental Health In The Workplace Interventions on this Health and Safety Executive link.
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