Mental Health in the workplace

Wide Range

There is a wide range of illnesses. Should an employer become involved? The overriding concern for an organisation is performance.  Does the condition affect an employee’s ability to do the job? Address mental health in the workplace whatever the employer’s needs are.

Statistics

As showed by Prime Minister Theresa May, in her speech on mental health, it is a serious issue. Fifty percent of children develop a mental illness at 14 and seventy-five percent of 18-year-olds have mental health challenges. One in four adults has a mental disorder! One could hardly blame you for thinking that the dangerously increased level of mental illness could be because of increases in the freedoms held dear by modern society. These freedoms are the reward we have for progress, and the illness is the price we pay for the same freedom.

Some Causes:

• Stress which itself can become an illness if allowed to go unchecked.

• Drug abuse, including the very drugs, prescribed for mental illness.

• Social Media addiction including professional gaming–particularly when young children have no boundaries regarding the time spent on the games and the games played–some are so violent that adults would baulk at engaging in them. Lack of sleep, because of long hours spent playing games, and gratuitous violence can play havoc on the young mind. Other addictions include gambling and many criminal ones like illegal pornography.

• Inability to process daily interaction stress whether it involves driving, public transport or relationships at home and work. It can pile up and gradually lead to a breakdown.

• Fear – justified fear, as in trauma experienced in the progress of a crime against one and the very real trauma created by poor public service delivery, or irrational phobias–both types need treatment. Young people have a genuine fear of unemployment after school–exposure to alternative must address this employment choices, as in entrepreneurship.

• Insomnia–a dangerous modern plague because of the reversal of the sleep and wake pattern. It is doubtful that human beings were meant to live by night, yet the looming work deadline or having to work the night shift to earn a living, keeps us awake at night.

Support

There can be several reasons that a worker develops a mental illness at work, apart from possible existing medical conditions. Whether the employee develops an illness or has a condition, the employer has to do all that he can to support the person, if they are to function to your satisfaction. Ignoring the situation is self-defeating. Should you feel justified in dismissing the worker based on poor performance because of mental illness, it’s good to remember those statistics–you may well use someone new who has a more severe condition, only one that may be harder to detect; as in a sociopath who could appear entirely healthy!

How

How to support the mentally ill worker starts with communication in a safe and trust-based environment. To get workers’ co-operation in their health management, they have to feel secure and you have to be someone that they feel can trust. To unrealistically bemoan the loss of an earlier stress-free time, and the operative word here is unrealistic, is pointless – every era had its stresses and mental illness.

Annual Leave

The SOLUTION is support for the worker by allowing time off for treatment and possibly rewarding improvement. Encourage annual leave with a minimum carry over to the next calendar year. Update employee’s emergency contact details regularly to get as much help from family, to manage the condition, as possible.

Tips for employees:

• Have regular check-ups and stick to the medical regimen.

• If you are fortunate enough to have a supportive employer, co-operate with this support to produce your best work.

• Build a relationship of trust with a colleague or your line manager.

• Be honest about all aspects of illness, so that your company knows how to deal with any negative fallout from relapse.

• Do not under any circumstance abuse employer’s trust and support, with the dishonesty of any kind regarding your condition. Time taken off for treatment must be just that.

• Never pretend you’re coping when you are not. Your employers could plan an action if you let them know how you feeling. If work becomes too much, stress will worsen your condition.

• Take part in your progress by working with the company, to start whatever government programmes are available to them, to support mentally ill workers.

Last Word

A last word to the employer:–some mental illnesses are tough to detect. For the best way to deal with many mental illnesses, it is advisable to consult with medical professionals and also for you to go through some training to help you. Remember, nobody is immune to mental health issues. By working together, we can fight it!

Lynda Stephen (Rogle) ©

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