How can managers and businesses help mental health in the workplace?

With mental health becoming less of a taboo subject and real progress being made, companies and managers have to step up to make sure they are doing the best they can. The NHS is already falling back on sticky-plaster solutions like prescribing a record 64.7m antidepressants in 2016 (that’s doubled in the last decade) to treat a variety of mental health issues and it can take months to see a psychotherapist on the NHS, so companies have a big role to play. By encouraging a more open environment we should see a drop in the estimated 300,000 people who leave their jobs annually due to mental health problems, according to the government’s Thriving At Work report, and reduce the associated costs to business which stand at £30.3bn per year, £105bn to the UK economy as a whole, according to the Department Of Health. Employers are encouraged to take ownership of their employees’ mental wellbeing by implementing a number of recommendations including creating mental health at work plans, developing awareness and introducing routine monitoring of employee mental health and wellbeing. As a business it is not your duty to relieve all stress from employees – it’s impossible and would be detrimental to the health of the company. But it should be your duty to reduce it and there are areas that can be looked at to alleviate non-productive stress.

Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2017/11/27/how-can-managers-and-businesses-help-mental-health-in-the-workplace-7102895/?ito=cbshare
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