Mental Health at Work: 6 Ways to Improve Mental Health Awareness in the Workplace

 

With 1 in 5 employees experience mental health condition in any given year, business owners can be proactive in addressing concerns associated with mental health. 

The World Mental Health Report of 2017 that just over half total of employees are comfortable on discusiing mental health issues at work. Only 13% of employees have spoken to their manager r HR about mental health issues.

Every year there has been slight improvement in these statistics. However, the same problems remains – people/employees are still afraid to speak out. And why is that? Stigma.

Mental health issues continues to have a great deal of stigma associated with it despite advances in psychiatry and psychology. Such stigma creates fear that speaking out will result in negative consequences. A recent study supports this which found that nearly 60% of Australians workers wouldn’t openly talk about mental ill-health for fear it would affect their job prospects or employability.

What can companies and employers do to address mental health issues? We prepared a checklist for employers outlining the five ways to address mental health issues in the workplace

1. Raise Awareness

Educating both the management and employees about common mental health issues and holding open discussions is an important part of raising awareness. It will promote a greater understanding of the topic, encourage conversation and increase openness. 

2. Reduce Stigma

Making information about mental health more visible in the workplace can help reduce the stigma surrounding mental health conditions.

3. Create a Culture of Well-being

Start with addressing mental health issues in the workplace then stablish a strong mental health policy. A mental health policy in place will give the management and employees a framework on how to recognise mental health problems and encourage proper treatment. 

The management should be the role model of behaviors that lead to a healthy working culture. Regularly check up on the employees, how are they feeling and do follow ups. Doing so shows  that you care about them and you have given them the opportunity to raise concerns before bigger problems arise. 

4. Promote Employee Self-Care Program

As part of your companies’ culture of empowering workers to improve work life balance, create, encourage, and implement employee self-care program. And ESC program can reduce stress, as well as increase employees’ engagement and productivity.

5. Mental Health First Aid Training

Provide mental health first aid training for managers and team leaders to enable them to recognise, support, and manage mental health problems in the managers. Company leaders and managers having an awareness of the common signs of anxiety, depression, PTSD or other mental health problems will enable them to support colleagues early before things get worse.

First Aid Pro provides Mental Health – Recognising the Signs awareness training that is designed to help managers, supervisors, and business owners understand and support their employees through a crisis. Learn how to respond to mental ill health in the workplace and gain the skills and knowledge on how to recognise the signs that allows you to offer support and assistance.

Remember that in any case of mental ill-health, early intervention is important. Recognising the signs early and doing the right next steps will help prevent the employee from becoming ill or taking long term sick leave that most often requires a worker’s compensation claim.

We offer MHFA – Recognising the Signs in all our CBD training rooms across Australia. We do group/corporate booking where we can come to your workplace or preferred venue of training. 

Sign up to our MHFA Course today!