How to Improve Mental Health in the Workplace
- Awareness and education is the key for developing a good understanding of mental health and how to support employees who are at risk. Develop and implement policies that raise awareness of mental health and work towards reducing stigma in the workplace. Leaders and managers talking about mental health openly and honestly goes a long way towards acceptance of mental health in the workplace. This in turn helps to build empathy for co-workers and an acknowledgement that there may be high stress levels in the workplace that impacts on individuals and their wellbeing.
- A culture of trust and support is a great place to start. It is critical we all work towards reducing the stigma so employees can feel safe to talk about their mental health without fear of consequences and trusting that there will be help and support. The Mentally Healthy Workplace Alliance is a national initiative to encourage workplaces to become mentally healthy and is a great source of information for helping employers determine how they can improve workplace mental health.
- Develop a long term mental health strategy, addressing policy and providing mental health resources in order to address areas of bullying, poor decision making, long working hours, inadequate communication and job insecurity.
- Protective factors can be developed and implemented, such as training that is related to leadership, positive morale, collaborate decision making, good communication and team collaboration. The evidence shows that acceptance and good working relationships, especially with managers, are a strong protective factor.
- An integrated approach to wellbeing. There is no one way to improve mental health in the workplace, but an action plan that develops and implements supportive measures to help improve wellbeing, both physical and mental, has been shown to help improve employee productivity, lower absenteeism and promote a positive workplace culture.
- It’s healthy to seek help. Just as we go to the doctor for physical health concerns we should feel able to seek professional help for mental health issues. Having access to, and promoting, employee assistance programs in the workplace, and access to the counselling provided by these programs, is critical. Management need to support and encourage employees to use the counselling services and demonstrate that it is acceptable as a strong message in helping reduce the stigma.
We recommend the following training sessions to improve awareness of mental health in the workplace:
Managers are not always aware or confident in talking about mental health with their employees and can be supported through our Manager Support Hotline.
Click here for our Tips for Promoting Positive Mental Health.
For more information call us on 1800 818 728 or visit our website accesseap.com.au.
