To mark World Mental Health Day, Dr Zain Sikafi – CEO and co-founder of therapy and counselling platform Mynurva – advises on how to go about promoting mental health in the workplace.

 

World Mental Health Day – a day for global mental health education, awareness and advocacy against social stigma – was observed for the first time on 10th October 1992. Over a quarter of a century since its inception, this awareness day gives organisations and employers across the world the opportunity to reflect on mental health in workplaces and what more can be done to support employee wellbeing. 

 

Regrettably, despite generating widespread attention and raising awareness, World Mental Health Day has yet to encourage any major changes in terms of tackling mental health issues. If fact, mental health in the workplace continues to be a pressing issue across the globe, despite many positive public efforts. 

 

The UK Prime Minister’s ‘Mental Health at Work’ report, released last year, revealed the pressing nature of the problem in Britain: it showed that a staggering 300,000 people lose their jobs each year due to mental health problems. Meanwhile, Deloitte has discovered that the cost of mental ill-health to the UK national economy can reach up to £99 billion a year. 

 

Such figures suggest that much more needs to be done to improve wellbeing within the workplace – a responsibility that employers must approach with the utmost importance. So what measures can employees take to promote positive mental health outcomes at work?

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Determine the causes of stress

 

There is strong evidence that work-related stress is on the rise. Just under 30 per cent of businesses surveyed by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) and Aviva said they had seen an increase in the number of employees affected by mental health issues in the last three years. Moreover, in 2018 the CIPD Wellbeing at Work survey revealed that more than one-fifth of organisations cited mental illness as the primary cause of long-term absence.

 

To tackle these pressing issues, employers need to identify causes of stress within the workplace and take proactive measures to address them. To be clear, work-related stress is defined by the Health and Safety Executive as “the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressure or other types of demand placed on them at work”.

 

All organisations should have an effective stress management policy in place, which is regularly reviewed and actively implemented. Creating a stress at work policy group and involving members of both management and staff is a good way to promote close collaboration and ensure that risks of stress in the workplace are constantly assessed and reviewed.  

 

Consulting different members of the workforce and creating forums for discussion gives employees the opportunity to share their insights and perspectives on different policies and suggest changes that could be made within the workplace.