Mental Health and You
Did you know that October 10th is world mental health day?
The World Health Organisation recognises World Mental Health Day on the 10th of October each year. The overall objective of World Mental Health Day is to raise awareness of mental health issues around the world and to mobilise efforts in support of mental health.
After a long couple of years living through a pandemic and recently, the cost-of-living crisis, it is to be expected that the mental health of your employees will be impacted. Therefore, it is more important than ever before to be aware of mental health amongst your team.
How Mental Health has recently been affected
In the UK, many have struggled with mental health since the pandemic began in early 2020, with financial uncertainty and spiralling inflation. *In 2019 the number of adults aged over 18 experiencing psychological distress increased from 20.8% to 29.5% in April 2020.
Recently, a *US health panel found anxiety levels were so high that all under 65’s should be regularly screened with the link being made that the UK is just as bad with anxiety disorder in hitting an all-time high.
Mental Health and Your Team
Poor mental health impacts your business as much as poor physical health does. After months of extreme stress, anxiety, and uncertainty it is essential that you support your team in the workplace and throughout any transition periods as they return to the office.
There are many ways in which recent events will have impacted the mental health of your employees. The last few years has changed almost every aspect of our lives and of course that has a knock-on effect on our collective mental health. Mental health is extremely important and connected to physical health. If your employee’s mental health is suffering, it can manifest in their physical health. Therefore, it is important to deal with any issues as soon as possible.
HOW TO SUPPORT YOUR TEAM
There are many ways in which you can support your team and their mental health. Here are just a few recommendations:
- Encourage care of physical health
- You can take this one step further by providing health screens so that they can have the peace of mind that comes with understanding their health completely.
- Connection
- Even if you are not returning to the workplace full time, make sure that your team are staying in contact and have some social interactions.
- Isolation can have an extremely negative impact on mental health.
- Regular breaks
- This is especially important if working from home. Without colleagues around to chat to or grab a coffee with, many employees have a tendency to work constantly throughout the day. This can lead to burn out which will eventually lead to absenteeism and sick leave.
- At least one break per day should be taken away from the workspace. This could be a walk around the neighbourhood or simply grabbing a bite to eat away from the desk.
- Open communication
- Giving your employees the opportunity to speak up about any big stressors in their work or life can resolve the issue at an early stage.
- This also instils a sense of respect and care in your employees, which will only benefit their mental health and attitude towards work.
HOW THE DOCTORS CLINIC GROUP CAN HELP
A healthier workforce is a happier workforce, and this includes being mentally healthy too. By investing in your employee wellbeing strategy and providing your managers with adequate training to talk about mental health issues, you can reduce sickness absence leave and the impact it can have on your business.
As well as GP services, we can provide thorough mental health support with our private GPs and consultant specialists:
- Same day GP appointments – all GPs have professional mental health training
- Rapid referrals to our consultant psychiatrist and other specialists covered by all major PMI insurers
- Mental health wellbeing questionnaire for a company-wide benchmarking exercise
- Manager’s toolkit
- Mental health seminars
- Mental health first aid training
To learn more please contact our sales team today!
Sources:
* 2. Important findings - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)