The concept of Employee Mental Health Programs Schemes can be complicated. Lets strive to make it easier to understand.

Poor mental health does not equate to poor performance. It’s important to understand that an individual can have a serious mental health problem but – with the right support – can still be thriving at work’. Many people with mental health issues perform at a high level, some with and others without support or adjustments. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recognized burnout as “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been properly managed”. Burnout is frequently cited in surveys about mental health and wellbeing. From a business perspective, it makes perfect sense to pay more attention to the health and wellbeing of your employees because when they’re happy and mentally well-balanced, they drive the success of your business. No business succeeds unless employees are invested in that success and performing to the best of their ability on a consistent basis. That’s how it works. But, it won’t work if you don’t pay attention to issues relating to mental health among your workforce in your workplace. You can modify your viewpoint if you can adjust minor aspects in your workweek. Begin by taking your breaks at different times, shifting your lunch hour, bringing in a new employee to lunch, or modifying your commute routes. You can make every day or week feel new. Explore to find out what works best for you. Not defending the quality bar can be because an employee is scared of speaking out. There are many different mental health problems. Some of them have similar symptoms, so you may experience the symptoms of more than one mental health problem, or be given several diagnoses at once. Or you might not have any particular diagnosis, but still be finding things very difficult. Everyone’s experience is different and can change at different times.

Employers have a huge positive role to play in improving the nations mental health and it also makes perfect business sense to keep our colleagues as mentally fit and productive as possible. Whether work is causing the health issue or aggravating it, employers have a legal responsibility to help their employees. Work-related mental health issues must to be assessed to measure the levels of risk to staff. Where a risk is identified, steps must be taken to remove it or reduce it as far as reasonably practicable. Evidence suggests that early intervention and prevention can have overall health and financial benefits. Employing positive mental health strategies, for example, can decrease health care claims and reduce morbidity by alleviating symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress. Everyone has been stressed by work or life at some point. Even if you as an employer have not struggled with mental illness, or you’re not yet ready to share with coworkers, find someone in leadership who would be willing to open the dialogue. Employees will follow the lead, but someone needs to take the first step. Don't forget to send out proper internal communications around employers duty of care mental health in your organisation.

Living With Mental Health Disorders

Depression is a feeling of low mood that lasts for a long time and affects everyday life. It can make someone feel hopeless, despairing, guilty, worthless, unmotivated and exhausted. It can affect self-esteem, sleep, appetite, sex drive and physical health. In its mildest form, depression doesn’t stop someone leading a normal life, but it makes everything harder to do and seem less worthwhile. At its most severe, depression can make someone feel suicidal, and be life-threatening. We all come to the topic of mental health with our own ideas and exposure levels. You will have your own experience of mental health or mental illness, and your own motivation for why you want to learn more about the topic. Perhaps your interest in the subject has been sparked by your own experience of clinical depression or intense, long-standing stress at work. Most people will go through times when they feel low, stressed or frightened and for most people, those feelings will pass. However, on some occasions they can develop into a more serious problem and it can happen to any one of us. Having a mental illness doesn’t make someone weak or entirely different from other people. These unhelpful and harmful stereotypes about mental illness serve to undermine progress made to further mental health conversations at work. Larger employers can and should ensure provision of tailored in-house mental health support and signposting to clinical help, including digital support, employer-purchased Occupational Health or Employee Assistance Programmes, or NHS services, amongst other sources of support. For employers not investing in wellbeing initiatives, workplace wellbeing ideas can be a difficult notion to comprehend.

The most common diagnosable mental health problems are anxiety and depression, which often co-exist and are leading causes of long-term work-related ill health. Workplace bullying is more than someone being bossy and occasionally having an angry outburst about work targets. It is when someone persistently acts towards you in a way that hurts, criticises or victimises you. They can be quite obvious – shouting or swearing or humiliating you in front of colleagues; or more underhand – constantly criticising you, isolating you from colleagues, spreading malicious rumours about you or blaming you whenever things go wrong. Prevention and early intervention are the most effective ways to support workforce mental health, rather than tackling problems after they arise. The steps needed to encourage this cultural shift are, in the majority of cases, simple – but they need to be driven at a senior level to help implement lasting change. Paying attention to positive leadership and management styles, and stimulating a supportive atmosphere among employees, are actionable strategies for addressing employee mental health. Poor mental health impacts employees, their families, employers and the state. An acknowledgement of this economic impact is reflected in the increased focus on mental health in policymaking, especially the political commitments to achieve parity in treatment of mental and physical health, and the increasing role of employers to support their employees’ mental health. Discussing ideas such as Wellbeing for HR is good for the staff and the organisation as a whole.

Treating People As Individuals

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. How we should be integrating the discussions of mental health and mental illness into the fabric of workplace culture is to acknowledge the shades of grey, that mental health conditions arise, and it’s ok not to be ok at work. And, it’s ok to talk about not being ok at work. A nationwide employee survey found that what people want the most in the workplace are trainings and more easily accessible information about where to go or who to ask for mental health support. A more open culture about mental health at work is also important to employees, according to the survey. In recent years, there has been a surge in positive attitudes about well-being in the workplace initiatives, however, many companies are slow to implement them. Understanding their benefits and using them, could be the edge that your organisation needs. At any moment, over 15% of people in the UK and Ireland are suffering in work with symptoms of a mental health condition. That’s one in six of your people struggling—right now—to get through their workday, perhaps silently. Thinking about concepts such as workplace wellbeing support is really helpful in a workplace environment.

Mental wellness cannot be packaged into five neat containers and presented to a workforce of 500+ people who are all battling different stressors. It’s not always about people having an “off day” at work. According to a Mental Health America survey, 85 percent of workers say the workplace negatively impacts their mental state. What we find is that those who aren’t experiencing symptoms or situations that need clinical treatment are falling through the gaps of access to care. Look into mental health training for your both you and your management team. This training, provided by mental health experts, will provide you with the tools you need to tackle stigma in the workplace and educate you about mental health – both incredibly important when it comes to supporting an employee with anxiety. Mental health is defined as a state of successful performance of mental function, resulting in productive activities, fulfilling relationships with other people, and the ability to adapt to change and to cope with challenges. Diverse teams call for diverse work environments – and all diverse teams include a healthy mix of different personalities like introverts, ambiverts and extroverts. Forcing everyone on your team to work in a loud environment may keep the extroverts happy but will mentally drain your introverts. And extroverts may feel lonely and excluded when not given the freedom to converse and interact with colleagues openly. The future working world will be a diverse one, and mental health support will have to evolve to support these different working practices. It’s not enough for support to be purely in-person, for example, as many of us are more comfortable with the distance and relative anonymity of remote communication. An opinion on managing employees with mental health issues is undoubtebly to be had in every workplace in the country.

Employees Perform Better When They Feel Supported

Leaders need to do everything they can to empower employees in managing their well-being and creating healthier work environments. We all need to accelerate actionable and meaningful change, now. Putting things in place to reduce stress has business-benefits, too. Managing workplace-stress been shown to boost productivity, boost performance, minimise conflict and - ultimately - build a happier and healthier workforce. Protecting and promoting mental wellbeing in the workplace is not only good for your employees. It’s also good for your business or organization. Your staff members’ mental health has a direct effect on their level of engagement and productivity. This means, not just happier workers, but also a healthier bottom line. Uncover more details on the topic of Employee Mental Health Programs Schemes on this Health and Safety Executive page.

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