Rehabilitation: helping employees with mental health conditions
Employers and employees alike in the UK are becoming aware of the need to talk about mental health at work. The UK Government last year commissioned a review on the subject as part of an effort to transform the way mental health is dealt with at work, in schools and in the community.
The gradual breaking down of taboos about mental health and a move away from the fabled British “stiff upper lip” mentality are to be welcomed, not only because of the benefits to individuals affected but also to society and the economy as a whole.
Employers have a duty of care to their employees; there are benefits of properly managing mental health for the wider workplace, and there are financial benefits too.
The toll of poor mental health
Poor mental health costs employers between £33 billion and £42 billion each year, according to a recent report by Deloitte. That estimate includes costs associated both with absences and with presenteeism – employees showing up to work while unwell.
Presenteeism, Deloitte estimates, can actually cost employers up to three times more than mental health-related absence.
As with physical health conditions, mental health can vary by individual and change over time, and can affect a person’s ability to thrive and work effectively, the Deloitte report noted.
In 2017, UK Prime Minister Theresa May commissioned a review on mental health at work. The review was carried out by cross-bench peer Lord Dennis Stevenson and Paul Farmer, CEO of mental health charity Mind and chair of the National Health Service’s Mental Health Taskforce.
The report, Thriving at Work, found that some 300,000 people with a long-term mental health condition in the UK fall out of work every year. It sets out a series of mental health core standards, a framework of actions which, the authors say, all organisations should be able to achieve.
Those actions include:
- Producing, implementing and communicating a mental health at work plan;
- Developing mental health awareness among employees;
- Encouraging open conversations about mental health and the support available when people are struggling;
- Providing employees with good working conditions and ensuring they have a healthy work-life balance and opportunities for development.
- Providing effective people management through line managers and supervisors; and
- Routinely monitoring employee mental health and well-being.
Author : Simon White, Head of UK Casualty–Retail, AXA XL
Published : The Insurance Times, November 2018
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