Prioritizing Mental Health Management for Professionals: Strategies for Well- being in Demanding Work Environments.

By Saramba Josephine.

In the current professional environment that is characterized by pressure to perform and high expectations from managers, the importance of mental health management for professionals cannot be overstated. World Health Organization (WHO), estimates that 12 billion working days are lost annually to mental health issues at a cost of US$.1 trillion in lost productivity. These statistics underscores the urgent need for employers to prioritize mental health initiatives to mitigate effects of workplace stressors and promote overall wellbeing of its employees. Risks to mental health conditions, especially at work, are usually related to job type or work schedule, unique characteristics of the workplace or opportunities for career advancement. These psychosocial risks are found in all sectors. However, depending on what kind of work and the mode of work, some workers are more likely to be exposed to the mental health risk factors than others. For instance, those working in the health, humanitarian and emergency sectors carry higher risk of exposure to mental health risks, compared to the rest.

Mental health issues can affect anyone within an organization. Prioritizing mental health of employees is therefore very crucial for the benefit of the employers. Statistics shows that prioritizing mental health may help solve employee’s retention problem, because many of those resigning from their jobs are doing so for their mental well-being. For professionals, maintaining good mental health is not only a personal benefit, but crucial for job performance, productivity and overall satisfaction of workplace.

  Key challenges in addressing mental health in work place remains to be pervasive stigma associated with seeking help for mental health issues, especially in professional settings. Workers fears about being judged, or seen as weak and seeking of help. We are then left with the task to break down these barriers by fostering openness, acceptance and culture of supporting when it comes to mental health in work place.

Employers plays significant role in protecting and promoting mental health at work. This can be done through strengthening capacities that recognizes and act on mental health conditions at work. For instance, train managers on mental health to increase their skills to recognize and respond to emotional distress of their supervisees. This in the long run helps to build good interpersonal skills like open communication and active listening, fostering better understanding of how job stressors affect mental health and can be managed.

Workers living with mental health conditions have a right to participate in work fully and fairly without being discriminated against. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities provides an international agreement for promoting the rights of people with disabilities (including psychosocial disabilities) at work. People with mental health conditions can be supported to gain, sustain and participate in work without being discriminated. Therefore, to support these kinds of employees, employers can provide reasonable accommodations at work, provide flexible working hours, give extra time for them to finish tasks, modify assignments to reduce stress, and allow time off for health appointments or regular supportive meetings with supervisors. Return-to-work programs can combine work-directed care with ongoing clinical care to support workers in meaningfully returning to work after an absence associated with mental health conditions.

Furthermore, employers can help improve mental health at work by creating an enabling environment for change. In practice, this means strengthening the work place policies by integrating mental health at work. Rights to participate in work, for example, and implementing non-discrimination policies at work should be integrated in the policies.  This should just not end there. Investment of sufficient funds and resources, for example by establishing dedicated budgets to improve mental health at work and making mental health services available to every worker. Also, evidence- based research on psychosocial risks of workplace should be conducted. By doing this, the research outcomes will help identify any gaps in terms of stressors and triggers in the workplace environment and inform on the effectiveness of interventions, and come up with framework that can help improve and manage the identified stressors and triggers. The goal is to positively improve on the overall well-being of the workers and reducing or eliminating  risks.

It is important to include the participation of workers during decision-making, for example by holding meaningful and timely consultations with workers, their representatives and people with lived experience of mental health conditions. This will create an opportunity for them to express how work-life balance feels to them. Poor work-life balance usually contributes to burnout, which leads to increased anxiety, depression, mood disorders and high stress levels. It can also lead to low work productivity. Employers to do their best to create time for hobbies, interests and family time outside their work schedule for their workers.

Additionally, training workers in mental health literacy and awareness will definitely help to improve knowledge on mental health and reduce stigma against mental health conditions at work and will help to deal with violence and harassment at work.

As I conclude, I claim that mental health management is a continuous process that must be prioritized. Workplace mental health is critical to overall job performance, job happiness, and productivity. Employers can help by creating an organizational culture that fosters teamwork, empathy, and respect by organizing and supporting team building activities.

References

World employment and social outlook - Trends 2022. Geneva: International Labour Organization; 2022 (https://www.ilo.org/global/research/global-reports/weso/trends2022/WCMS_834081/lang--en/index.htm, accessed 26 August 2022)

Women and men in the informal economy: a statistical picture. Geneva: International Labor Organization; 2018 (https://www.ilo.org/global/publications/books/WCMS_626831/lang--en/index.htm, accessed 26 August 2022).