Did you know that one in four adults and one in ten children experience mental illness?*
To acknowledge World Mental Health Day, we are looking at recent research that highlights the issue of mental health at work and what support is available to help both businesses and schools improve how they support mental health.
Two in five (39%) of UK employees claim work is an underlying cause of mental health issues. As stated in the new report released by Business in the Community (BITC), in partnership with Mercer Marsh Benefits, 33% consider negative relationships with colleagues to have a direct effect and 24% still experience harassment or bullying from a manager. Organisations need to be aware of colleague relationships and look at how an inclusive culture can be fostered. Some organisations have set up wellbeing committees to focus on issues facing colleagues and present a voice through to leadership. Others, have looked at offering the option of counselling as an outlet for any member of staff experiencing such issues. The real surprise of the report was the percentage of employees who still think that managers and leadership teams prioritise company interests over staff wellbeing, this was a high 62% of those surveyed.
With mental health awareness increasing and wellbeing being a focus on both education and private sector agendas you would have thought this would have been reduced. However 9% of people still felt that they were subject to disciplinary action, demotion or dismissal on the back of mental health issues, which demonstrates that there is still a lack of understanding about mental health.
Louise Aston, Wellbeing Campaign Director at BITC, stated: “While mental health awareness has risen significantly in recent years, our research shows that too many employers are tinkering at the edges of change rather than making the fundamental differences that are really needed to improve their employees’ mental health.”
So what are you doing to improve mental health in your organisation?
Back in 2017, the Government published its Green Paper for Transforming children and young people’s mental health. This proposed an NHS programme to increase access to mental health support and reducing waiting times for treatments.
Since then various initiatives have been put in place, including a new website launched this week in honour of World Mental Health Day. The new website Every Mind Matters crashed after receiving so much traffic following television advertising this week. The short film featured celebrities and was narrated by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Sussex. The website offers a free mind quiz, support for managing your mental and physical health and an online plan designed to help you deal with stress, boost your mood, improve your sleep and feel more in control. You can access the website using this link.
For schools, trusts and colleges the NHS committed to develop new Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs), in conjunction with the DfE. These will provide pupils with support for wellbeing issues such as anxiety and behavioural difficulties that is supervised by NHS staff. The aim is for pupils to be able to access these services within four weeks. After trials this year, the service is expected to be rolled out by the end of the year.
The NHS has also launched The Link Programme which is a £9.3m initiative led by the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families and funded by the Department for Education. This will provide, over the next four years, a series of workshops for schools and colleges to pool their resources and share understanding relating to mental health management.
We will keep you posted on these initiatives.
In the meantime, if we can help with any wellbeing initiatives please get in touch. We offer supportive services for mental and physical health such as Occupational Health Support, Counselling, Mindfulness, CBT, NLP, Flu clinics and Medical Health Checks. If you would like more information about our wellbeing support for schools and businesses please call 01924 827869.
We also have some wellbeing events coming up, click on the links below for more information:
SAM Wellbeing Client Webinar – 16th October
Wellbeing Strategy and Managing Stress for Managers – Leeds and Wakefield 17th October
Take a look at our training area for more upcoming or on-site courses.
Sources:
*https://www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-49967633
https://www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/cyp/trailblazers/
