Health Crisis at Work

 

According to the human resources professional body, the CIPD, there has been a significant increase in reported mental health issues in the workplace in the past twelve months. Furthermore, 2015 is the sixth consequetive year that reported problems - such as anxiety and stress - have been on the increase. The report states that the issues are associated with long working hours and operational precendent taking priority over employee well-being.

 

 

The CIPD report that although employees are getting better at discussing their mental health issues, the scale of the problem in the UK is simply not going away - and so more needs to be done - and this starts with management training. Line management will often be the first contact for any employee facing a problem, but only 30% of companies actually provide their managers with any training for these types of scenarios. The approach often needs to start at corporate policy level, with companies adopting a healthy attitude to supporting their staff.

 

 

Only 32% of private sector companies provide employees with a counselling service, compared with around 70% in the public sector. Attitudes at work are changing, but it is possibly not surprising that staff feel that management may be hostile to dealing with mental health issues. Corinne Williams, Head of HR at SimplyHealth suggests that one solution is for more companies to adopt employee wellbeing programmes, with confidentiaal help-lines that woulkd help to get to the root cause of problems, rather than just trying to cope with the symptoms.

 

Emma Mamo from MIND says that employers can no longer afford to hide their heads in the sand and hope the problem will just go away. Employees evidently need more, not less help. She says, " Many people still don't feel comfortable disclosing, and sometimes those who do are not offered the right support, at the right time".

 

 

Dr Charlie Easmon writing on this subject in his article, Early Medical Intervention for Stress at Work explains the difficulty of separating patient confidentiality from corporate health programmes. Employers have a vested interest and company doctors need to be clear from the outset as to whether they are acting in the best interest of the patient or the company that employs them. In some cases it is necessary to seek help from independent primary care physicians with specialist interest in corporate health.

 

There is also often a large amount of more general crisis management issues surrounding mental health. However, there are experts on-hand who can even provide immediate professional assistance for these situations.