Improve mental wellbeing of workforce

By Liz Lockhart

Millions of lives could be improved and millions of pounds could be saved if employers would take simple steps to improve the mental wellbeing of their staff and Mind, the mental health charity, has joined forces with the TUC to prove just this.

The recently published annual survey by The Department of Health measures the attitude s to mental illness and on the whole this year’s survey is somewhat encouraging.

It shows that there is a general improvement in attitudes. The number of people agreeing that mental illness is like any other has risen from 71% in 1994 to 77% in 2011. Unfortunately this demonstrates relatively slow progress and shows that there is still a significant minority of people who have yet to learn about this issue.

As an example, 16% say that they feel that ‘lack of self-discipline and will-power’ are responsible for mental illness. This is like saying that you get food poisoning because you have a weak stomach.

The opinion of 17% of people surveyed is that having a mental health facility in a residential area would downgrade the neighbourhood . And with that thought in mind consider that 43% of workers with mental health problems would feel uncomfortable talking to their employer about it.

Depression, anxiety and stress affects on in six workers every year. Perhaps the government should bear this in mind when it gets tempted to tighten up the eligibility test for disability benefit to make it more difficult for people with mental health conditions to qualify. This would penalise one of the most vulnerable groups in our society.

Perhaps the collaboration of Mind and the TUC can hasten much needed changes to attitudes and worker/employer relationships when it comes to mental health issues.