Mind has launched ‘Taking care of business’ as part of it’s latest campaign in getting business to take more responsibility in stress management. The charity claims 1 in 10 workers have sought support from their doctors with 7% taking anti-depressants and 5% seeing some kind of mental health practitioner. It coincides with government statistics showing the biggest rise in anti-depressant prescriptions ever, with a record 39.1 million used in 2009.
The recession may have contributed to some of this increase, but Mind suggests companies do not take workplace mental health problems seriously or they are badly managed. They found only 38% of workers think their current employer is doing enough to support them.
This corresponds to my own findings, many clients in the last 12 months are experiencing extreme stress at work which manifests itself as panic attacks, IBS and depression, a common factor being they feel helpless and not in control of the situation.
BT in a bid to help their workers have even set up an indoor vegetable garden to help improve moral, something so simple can make a lot of difference, not that every business has the ability to do something like this, but it can review their stress management policy, making sure line managers understand mental health issues. One problem is, that it is still a taboo subject and many hide the fact they have these problems because they have the belief it’s a weakness. I have seen top execs from multi-national companies down to local secretaries, all with the same issues – stress does not discriminate against age, class, intellect, colour, creed or social status.
Another problem is taking time off work to deal with the problem. The number of clients I have to see late evenings and Saturday mornings because they can’t take time off work because they can’t let their bosses know they have a problem is staggering. It’s time for a change, so if you have an issue with stress, or your company does it’s time to deal with it. You could employ someone like myself to help change the way the company deals with stress, whatever you do taking anti-depressants will only alleviate the symptoms but not deal with the causes.
