Foster supportive work environments to enhance mental well-being of staff – Employers told

In the commemoration of this year’s World Mental Health Day, the Mental Health Authority highlighted the critical need for organizations to foster supportive environments, recognizing that mental well-being is essential for both employee health and overall productivity.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that mental, neurological and substance use disorders represent over 10% of the global disease burden, with lost productivity from depression and anxiety costing the global economy US$1 trillion annually.

Chief Executive of the Mental Health Authority, Professor A. Pinaman Appau emphasized the importance of enhancing mental health support in work environments.

“The Mental Health Authority believes that improving mental health in the workplace is a collective responsibility. Improving mental health at your workplace actually leads to increase productivity because, once there’s improved mental health in the workplace, there’s more employee engagement that will lead to better work output and therefore increased work productivity,” she explained.

Management and employers are being urged to develop clear policies regarding mental health.

“There are some important ones such as anti-discriminatory policies that should be considered and then work life balance policies is another that is regarding the implementation of flexible work arrangements like remote working to reduce stress and promote balance in the life of these workers. Mental health leave policy is another where you want to ensure that there is enough time to address the mental health concerns” Dr Edith Clarke, Occupational Health and Safety Consultant stated.

The Workplace Health and Safety OHS draft policy which incorporates aspects of mental health has been in development for over 20 years and has yet to receive government’s approval.

“I take this opportunity to call on our own regulators, the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations to push for the approval of the Occupational Safety and Health Policy and the accompanied draft legislation which has been on the drawing board for over 20 years by cabinet and government as soon as practicable because it is long overdue.” Dr Edith Clarke added.

Some workers also expressed their thoughts on the theme and suggested possible actions.

“When a worker is mentally stable, the worker is able to give their all. Like we say, ‘you can’t give what you don’t have’, if you’re mentally unstable, I don’t see how you’ll be able to put your thoughts together very well to deliver at the workplace like you should. It’s also unfortunate that it looks like in our part of the world, management is always concentrating on productivity, something must go into the productivity. Sometimes institutions have training programs with no attention given to mental health,” a lady worker noted.

“As an individual, it is very important to prioritise our mental health because it affects everything around us, it affects our family, our friends, it affects how we relate with everybody around us,” another worker stated.

The theme for this year’s World Mental Health Day is “It is time to prioritise Mental Health in the workplace.”

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