World Mental Health Day
It is World Mental Health Day today (Monday, 10 October). The theme for this year is psychological first support aid and providing assistance to those in distress. The aim of psychological first aid is to reduce the occurrence of post-traumatic stress disorder, particularly following crisis events such as the destruction caused in countries such as Haiti by Hurricane Matthew. However, it also includes providing people with the skills to deal with their own personal crises.
Mental health and the workplace
According to Mind, mental health issues in the workplace are commonplace, with 1 in 4 people experiencing mental health problems this year. Further, Mind reports that 1 in 5 employees have admitted to calling in sick due to workplace stress. So perhaps today we can all spend some time considering what support we can offer our family, friends and colleagues who may be experiencing mental health problems. One key area where we can all help is to make mental health issues less of a taboo subject so that people become more inclined to seek help rather than to suffer quietly.
Mentally healthy employees are more engaged and therefore more productive. Consequently, it is clearly in businesses’ best interests to consider how to tackle such matters proactively. I would recommend reading Mind’s “Introduction to mentally healthy workplaces” which provides some interesting suggestions. One area I am particularly interested in is the provision of resilience training to equip staff with the skills to deal with adversity and change. CIPD’s guidance on resilience sets out different approaches being used by HR professionals ranging from mindfulness to cognitive behaviour therapy.
Nick Hine and Jane Wheeler of Hine Legal will be speaking at this year’s Wellbeing @ Work Event on 19 October 2016, the aim of which is to provide a forum for businesses to meet, hear about and discuss wellbeing initiatives. I shall also be in attendance.
We have a wealth of experience in handling workplace matters involving mental health issues, including but not limited to sickness absence and disability discrimination complaints. This includes providing pratical training for employers. If you have any questions regarding mental health issues in the workplace, please do get in touch.
Fudia Smartt
Hine Legal
fsmartt@hinelegal.com
020 8629 6043