The Importance of Mental Health in the Workplace

How good are you, really?

Mental health disorders were reported to affect more than 1 in 5 United States adults aged 18 or older. Around 158 million people are employed in the US, that means about 32 million people affected. Those numbers don’t take into account that people do not always report their mental health or get to seek help. In the United States only 41 percent of people with a mental disorder received professional health care for it. 

This is an issue so large that it will impact the workplace. Poor employee mental health negatively affects the employee, damaging their job performance and productivity, communication and even physical capabilities or daily functioning can be affected. 

Just like any illness, mental health illnesses are real and need to be addressed. In this blog, we will be discussing how mental health challenges in the workplace can be addressed through behavior design. 

What is mental health and why does it matter?

Mental Health is the emotional, psychological and social well-being of a person. If mental health is allow to decline enough the person might become at risk to commit suicide. The effects of mental health can be less dramatic but just as very devastating. A person might fall into depression and have no motivation, always feel scared or have panic attacks making them unable to deal with other people. Mental health problems can happen to anyone. It has been reported that almost half of United States adults will experience mental illness during their lifetime.  Mental illnesses are also associated with chronic health disorders like diabetes, obesity and heart disease. 

In the workplace mental health can affect employee morale and productivity. 68 percent of employees worry about reacting out for help for their illness because it could negatively impact their job security. 50 percent of employees reported having mental health lapses but only one- third of the 50 percent reached out to their employer for help. Which means that there is a belief that there is not a support system for employees at their companies. 

How can we use Behavior Design to tackle mental health challenges in the workplace? 

Companies can help to reduce the burden of mental health by creating a mental health “how to” guide to help coworkers identify struggling team members and take the right steps to help them. Another way is to have managers be aware of mental health issues and use a scorecard to see if they think someone has it. Knowing about a problem is the first step to solving it. All workplaces should have a recognition program and should implement executive training, to prep their employees to spot when something is wrong. 

Workplace culture is also very important. Creating a positive workplace with constructive feedback and positive reinforcements are crucial to having a health and respectful workplace. A positive culture can be built by using team building activities. Also by allowing employees opportunities to reduce stress and talking to them in a clear and supportive manner.  

Many businesses provide employees with resources to improve mental health and manage their stress. Creating dedicated quiet rooms, makes mental health self-assessment tools available to all employees, and promotes mental health through educational programs. This article  from the Peace Innovation Lab speaks about how culture is the new care.

Mental health is an important problem that affects most people in one way or another. You or someone you know is likely to be influenced by mental health illness. By speaking up about it and bringing attention to the issue, can we help to start to solve it.

To summarize, organizations should: 

+ Create a ‘How-to’ guide to identify and approach struggling team mates

+ Use a scorecard to have employees self identify if they are struggling

+ Teach managers about mental health using workshops

+ Make sure to have a positive workplace culture, ex. Team building activities

+ Speak up about mental health, so others can share and not feel alone

+ Make sure employees have subsidized access to mental health resources 

What you can do to help.

Anyone can help by starting the workplace conversation. Talking about it allows for someone else to have an easier time speaking to it. Talking about mental health is hard, but by normalizing it, we can help others. 

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