Five Key Questions To Ask When Looking For Mental Health At Work Interventions
If you’ve spent any time researching Mental Health At Work Interventions in the preceding months, you have no doubt noticed how hard to understand the concept can be.
The workplace has a significant influence on people’s health and wellbeing. Creating the right work environment and managing potential sources of harm (such as high work demands, low levels of control and poor support) will benefit everyone at work. Improving mental health through work will help us to realise the health benefits of work. It underpins the drive towards greater productivity and social inclusion. Teams are made up of individuals and every team member sees the world slightly differently. Celebrate and welcome individual differences in outlook and approach - diversity within the team is key to creativity and the ability to experiment with new ideas. In the midst of a mental health crisis, people sometimes say or do things they wouldn’t otherwise say or do. If this has happened, then you may feel the need to rebuild relationships. But, very often, other staff will just be glad to see you back at work. People are able to empathise, and are more likely to have been busy with their own lives and work, rather than preoccupied with why you have been off sick or what led up to it. In tough times, people are even more reluctant to raise workplace issues or disclose mental health problems. A recent survey found that while stress has forced one in five workers to call in sick, 90 per cent say they have lied to their boss about the real reason for not turning up. Issues surrounding work and mental health conditions can be supported by simply making time for regular discussions and feedback with employees. Understand the employee including their mental health, ability to work and performance in their role. Find out what you can about what it is like to have mental ill health and listen to your employees’ experiences. Being under pressure is a normal part of life. It can help someone take action, feel more energised and get results. But if they often become overwhelmed by stress, these feelings could start to be a problem. People can respond to emotional stress as if it were a physical threat; muscles will tense, heartbeat and breathing will quicken as the body goes into ‘fight or flight’ mode, and various hormones, including adrenaline, are triggered.
Including mental health training in your company’s management training program provides your leadership team with the tools, resources, knowledge and skills they need to successfully promote a mentally healthy workforce. Mental health training for management can cover topics such as recognizing and responding to warning signs and creating a work environment that encourages open and honest communication. Mental health problems affect everyday activities, and this can be particularly apparent when a sufferer is trying to complete the tasks of their job. Anyone with mental health issues may carry their symptoms into their line of work. Unlike physical issues that may not flare up during working life, mental illness is a battle that takes place constantly. Work is good for mental health but a negative working environment can lead to physical and mental health problems. Only support and strategic leadership from the top will create organisational cultures where management styles based on openness and mutual respect can flourish. The senior management team will influence how managers throughout an organisation see their jobs and the extent to which they place a priority on people management. Organisations can make sure their employee benefits package provides support for employers duty of care mental health today.
Invest In Mental Health Training
There are, of course, workplaces which don’t have toxic work relationships or a noticeably unsafe work culture, but still struggle to create the aimed-for culture around mental health. This roadblock at work is more around logistics and practicalities, considering the resources and funding available, and touching on some HR and legal issues (and perceived concerns) that companies face. Mental health is an integral part of how we feel about our jobs, how well we perform and how well we interact with colleagues, customers and clients. Make open communication between all departments and levels a priority. Promote honest (but polite) dialogue in meetings and gatherings so that all employees feel like they have a say and know that they’re valued members of a bigger team. How can you, as a business owner or manager of people, who is struggling with your own mental health challenges and stress, help your employees while also taking care of yourself? The same basic principles apply. First, acknowledge that you are struggling, that it is common and not something to be ashamed of. Second, seek help from resources in your company or through your health insurance plan or community. Mental health challenges don't often go away on their own and getting the right assistance can help you feel better faster. Experts advise us to get up and walk away from the computer to relieve tension. Instead of sending an email or message, speak with a teammate in person. Working alone might exacerbate mental anxiety. Relationships boost our sensations of sociability and support. Even though it may not be easy to become an employee-centric company addressing managing employees with mental health issues it is of utmost importance in this day and age.
Why not commit to developing an approach to mental health at work that protects and improves mental health for everyone, whilst supporting those people who experience distress? Organisations should have assessed the mental health needs of its employees, understands where improvements are needed and identified clear objectives for development, along with the business case for doing so. Engaged employees work more hours. Their work life spills over into their personal life in positive ways. People with high career wellbeing are more than twice as likely to be thriving in their lives overall. Leaders are just as likely as anyone to go through tough times. When this happens, the old leadership style would have been to grin and bear it – to not show any ‘weakness’ to your team. However, by discussing their experiences openly with their team, leaders can help to create psychologically safe spaces in which everyone feels comfortable to open up themselves. The stigma associated with mental health remains a major obstacle to the effective diagnosis and treatment of mental health conditions. It can prevent employees from talking to colleagues or managers about their problems because they fear discrimination. It may even prevent them from acknowledging to themselves that they have a problem. Similarly to any change that happens within organizations, discussions around workplace wellbeing support need planning and implementing properly.
Model Healthy Behaviors
Work environments can promote a culture within the organisation that supports flexible working and addresses employees' concerns. Managers should respond to and seek to accommodate appropriate requests from employees for flexible working and should ensure consistency and fairness in processing applications. Managers' ability to manage teams with flexible working patterns may need to be developed. Along with creating healthy organisational practices, workplaces are perfectly positioned to provide health messages and opportunities to people. Usually the things that create good mental wellbeing are low or no cost. The boundaries between work life and home life have become increasingly blurred with the significant shift to home working. This needs to be monitored carefully, as a poor work-life balance is a shortcut to stressed and burned out employees. A productive work environment relies on having happy and healthy employees. When teams feel valued and supported in the workplace they are more likely to perform to the best of their abilities. While there are close links between mental and physical health and wellbeing, this report focuses on mental health and wellbeing in the workplace, and the need for dedicated strategies to be integrated in overarching human resources (HR) and health and safety policies. Subjects such as workplace wellbeing ideas can be tackled by getting the appropriate support in place.
Many people who experience distress try to keep their feelings hidden because they are afraid of other people’s responses. Fear of discrimination and feelings of shame are among the top reasons people give for not telling their colleagues about their mental health problems. With understanding, creativity, and support, companies can provide the best mental health programs for their employees. Well-supported employees work harder, work smarter, and repay that support in loyalty and reputation. Something to be mindful of when staying connected via technology is the pressure of “virtual presenteeism”. This is the expectation for people to be constantly connected and reachable all the time. To reply to an email immediately, for fear of being thought to be slacking off. There’s been a rise in the number of reported mental health issues over the past 10 years, and it’s well recognised that in many cases the main risks to people’s health at work are psychological. This has led to a growing recognition of the need for employer wellbeing practices to address the psychosocial, as well as the physical, aspects of health and wellbeing. Don't forget to send out proper internal communications around how to manage an employee with anxiety in your organisation.
Adults Spend Most Of Their Waking Hours At Work
Many job applicants will be fearful of disclosing information relating to their mental health problems in a job application or at interview stage, because misunderstanding and prejudice about poor mental health is still widespread. Under the Equality Act 2010, job candidates are not required to disclose they have a mental health condition to their prospective employer. We may be trying our best to look after ourselves, doing all the right things, but we still find we are struggling. If we are experiencing one of the common mental health difficulties such as anxiety or depression, this can lead to altered thinking, different energy and motivation levels, which all make it harder to do what we need to do to keep well or function effectively. To help reduce the stigma around mental health, employees can share more of their own experiences with other co-workers when appropriate. Unless you feel very safe, this is more about sharing your humanness than getting into details — co-workers can’t substitute for mental health professionals. Check out extra information appertaining to Mental Health At Work Interventions on this Health and Safety Executive article.