What Is the Importance of Mental Health in the Workplace?

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Nurturing mental health at work is integral for any worker to stay motivated, productive, and feel good. In the past few years, soaring rates of mental health disorders have been noted across several industries. Most mental health problems predominantly fall into either depression or anxiety.

This is an unfortunate trend that is nothing new but has been sped up by changes from the ongoing pandemic. It’s never been more important to acknowledge the need for strong mental health support in the workplace.

As more companies and organizations look at how to better mental health, it’s common to discover a better way of doing things overall. This could be different scheduling, dealing with problematic actors in the workplace, allowing employees to feel heard about their concerns, retaining more staff, and improving profitability. Mental health struggles can happen to any employee. Have the support ready.

Let’s learn about the importance of mental health in the workplace.

Mental Health in the Workplace

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, rates of depression and anxiety have quadrupled. Whether you are coming at this from the perspective of an employer or an employee, this is a problem for both.

Human beings struggle to cope with mental health struggles. These struggles are often private, since mental well-being isn’t prioritized in many workplaces.

Here are some of the symptoms from mental health disorders in the workplace:

Workplace Stress

Work is a leading cause of stress. This can stem from how much someone’s paid to how they are treated, inappropriate job expectations, and co-workers making others feel uncomfortable. Every workplace should be concerned about the effects of stress on mental health and the subsequent impact on employee productivity and retention.

Depression & Anxiety

For an employee with a mental health condition such as depression or anxiety, it can be very frustrating trying to overcome it. The mental stress from these and other mental health disorders often reduces what they can deliver in job performance. You can see increased errors, a lack of motivation, more absences, and seclusion from others in the workplace.

Mental Health Treatments

Discrimination toward mental health disorders is unacceptable. If someone is experiencing a mental health struggle, they should not be made to feel like they are to hide or that it’s their problem to deal with on their own time. The more that workplaces get involved with promoting positive mental health, the stronger the workplace will be.

The World Health Organization estimates more than $1 trillion is lost every year due to anxiety and depression. Factor into how three-quarters of the average workplace has struggled with a mental health issue. In the end, this can go so far as to contribute to suicide. Though some businesses may be apprehensive about investing in mental health resources, the benefits outweigh the costs across the board.

Every workplace should have mental health directives and a plan to provide all employees with a safe space to discuss their mental health struggles openly. This may look different depending on the business but what’s important is to have an evolved policy that prioritizes positive mental health.

How to Encourage Positive Mental Health

Mental health denotes the status of one’s well-being. We’ve already outlined what negative mental health looks like. What positive mental health looks like is a worker that can cope with stressors in the workplace, when they can work productively, and when they can contribute to the community around them.

If it does not cause a business financial hardship, there may be ways to improve morale and increase productivity within employee mental health. For example, someone struggling with anxiety may be better for a time with a more flexible schedule or flexible work arrangement, such as allowing them to work from home.

Mental Health Resources

Fortunately, the evolution of mental health as a priority has meant there is a lot of support. It’s just figuring out what resource is best for you or one’s workplace mental health plan. There is one-on-one in-person counselling, such as a psychotherapist Oakville. In addition, consider over-the-phone counselling or mental health resources that may be offered through a group insurance plan.

Access to counselling or similar mental health supports can be very beneficial, and with the information provided privately to every employee, they can be accessed privately. An employee may fear coming forward to access such services out of the risk of revealing too much about their private life to a boss or co-worker. This furthers the importance of ensuring every worker knows where to go to get help if they are struggling with a mental health issue.

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