Both males and females are equally at risk of issues surrounding mental health, depression and anxiety and it’s important that we’re aware of anyone within our businesses that may potentially show cause for concern.
I started this blog originally because around only 19% of men who actually have a mental health disorder, come forward to try and seek help or advice, and still fewer of that 19% actually put their name to it, so most remain anonymous. The shocking thing is, that the female statistic is only around 29% which means in both the male and female categories we’re still seeing that around 70-80% of people with a mental health issue will not seek help or maybe don’t even know how to.
A staggering 45% of mental health issues surrounding depression and anxiety are actually caused or develop because of people’s working environments and work lifestyles, that means nearly half of the mental health issues in the UK to date could potentially be remedied if companies were to employ steps to make a change!
The statistic in 2009 was that 1 in 6 workers is experiencing depression, anxiety or stress at a cost of approximately £26 billion to the UK economy, or around £1,035 per employee (a statistic from the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health, 2007).
This means that mental health at work is a pretty significant problem, yet we still, as a nation, take this stiff upper lip/elephant in the room approach, meaning that the costs spiral for individuals and businesses.
My focus as an individual is to create awareness of the issues, share my story (to give an indication of where others might have come from, or what they might be dealing with) and to help companies both large and small to remedy the issues, at least to a degree, in implementing changes & policies that aid their staff development long term.
• ensure sustainable provision of occupational health support for small and medium-sized employers (SMEs) at local level – for example, by implementing the NHS Wellbeing Task and Finish Group’s recommendation for NHS occupational health to provide spill-over services for local businesses.
• have a communications policy for staff absent through ill health which balances semi-regular contact to provide reassurance while not placing pressure on staff to return to work prematurely; where possible, frequency of contact should be discussed, tailored and agreed with individual employees.
• introduce and promote an EAP – SMEs can explore pooling resources in a local area to share the costs, supported by groups such as local Chambers of Commerce. At a minimum, employers should be aware of and able to signpost employees to appropriate sources of independent and confidential advice, such as the Mind infoline, local Mind or Citizens Advice Bureau.
• train line managers in making referrals to their EAP and evaluate their occupational health provision to ensure it plays an integral role in prevention and proactive absence management.
Now if you’re NOT employing some of the elements of the above I hope that this indicator will provide some detail as to the types of things that you should be looking at across your business, regardless of size and scale.
Some of these elements since the reports from the above were established have been put into play, specifically on a government front and we’re becoming better supported by the current government and the Royal families Foundation, lead by Princes William & Harry to highlight potential stigma and implement change.
There will be one event in Edinburgh on the 26th April 2016 and another in London on the 19th October 2016, so do take a look at the link above for details on that, because it will act as a useful opportunity for you to explore what we’re talking about.
Fundamentally we can all be doing something, it’s just about that one thing you might be able to do to improve a persons day to day lifestyle, especially if we look bag at that staggering 45% statistic at the top of this post.
What could you be doing to highlight/remedy the issues within your business?