The stigma surrounding mental health discussion in the workplace is slowly, but surely, eroding away
The stigma surrounding mental health discussion in the workplace is slowly, but surely, eroding away. And while employers continue to show their support for psychological wellbeing, 2019 should be a year of action.
In their sixth article of the series, Workplace Safety & Prevention Services’ (WSPS) talked HRD Canada through the details of the ‘preventing mental harm’ model.
“Society is working hard on breaking down stigma on mental illness and building awareness of mental health,” explained WSPS mental health consultant Krista Schmid.
“Make no mistake - while the workplace is a contributing factor to mental distress it is one of many sources of mental distress. A conscientious workplace is looking to understand their role and mitigate or prevent and more confidently address mental harm and potential mental injuries.”
But what does this mean for employers in a practical sense? Start by assessing where you have the most influence – namely how your people are managed – and look at how to improve this process step-by-step. It’s important to uncover if any parts of this process could be leading to employee distress or mental harm. The ‘preventing mental harm’ model, identifies the three areas of management opportunity; promoting mental well-being, preventing mental harm and resolving work-related mental injury.
As an employer, it’s essential to remember that mental health is not a ‘static condition’. It can be influenced by many factors such as genetics, life events or conditions, environment, relationships, experiences, resiliency or actions of others. As such, this could result in any employee experiencing mental distress at some point in their careers.
In order to utilize this model to its full capabilities, employers should revisit the 13 psychological factors for workplace mental health, which will assist on identify potential vectors of psychological harm. The resolution of an employee’s mental injury will include both the investigation and correction of workplace factors that contributed to mental harm, as well as accommodation and return to work strategies.
So, what are the realistic benefits of applying such a theoretical construct in your organization? The nature of the model allows for significant culture change - reaction to proactive mental harm prevention. With this in mind, workplaces will be better able to ensure allocation of resources to improve efficiency, mitigating high risk and increase return on investment.
While there’s few legal requirements for mental health prevention at work, we’re seeing a growing interest in the topic at large. In relation to the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA), there’s an increasing amount of pressure for employers to include psychological health and safety in harassment, bullying and violence provisions.
“Realistically this will require a mindset change that legislation and regulation must be prepared to see beyond the physical hazards to recognize the greater picture that psychological demands and behaviors have on worker health,” added Schmid.
