3 Reasons Mental Health Should Be a Core Element of Your Health and Safety Policy

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a massive public health crisis on two fronts. millions of people died from the disease, and the disruption and isolation caused by the coronavirus crisis have also exacerbated existing mental health problems and created new ones.

Image from ONS

Data from the Office of National Statistics show that one in five adults in Britain experienced some form of depression at the height of the pandemic. Pre-pandemic, this number was one in 10. This aligns with an APA report showing that anxiety and depression rates among adults in the US were approximately four times higher between April and August 2021 compared to 2019.

This isn’t to say that employers are only now recognizing the importance of mental health. But the seismic disruptions to the workplace (e.g., the sudden shift to remote work) have made mental wellbeing a focal point of overall employee health and safety.

Below are three reasons why now is the perfect time to include mental health in your organization’s health and safety assessments.

1. Mental health is covered by health and safety regulations

Despite popular belief, health and safety risks in the workplace aren’t limited to physical hazards such as exposure to trips, slips, falls, electricity, noise, radiation, heat, cold and fire. Health and safety laws also explicitly mention mental health risks such as burnout, stress, anxiety and depression, among others.

As an employer, you’re legally obligated to ensure that employees suffering from mental health conditions receive access to help. This applies whether the mental health issues are caused directly by working conditions or aggravated by them.

It’s a good idea to have a health and safety policy that outlines a framework for improving mental health. This framework can include:

• A mental health plan at work
• Procedures for initiating conversations about mental health and reducing the stigma around mental health conditions
• Monitoring the impact of measures to improve mental health and updating them if necessary.

2. Reducing worker stress improves productivity

Stress is arguably the biggest cause of poor mental health in the workplace. Before the pandemic, HSE figures show that 12.8 million working days were lost in 2018 and 2019 due to stress, anxiety and depression.

Although updated figures have yet to be released, it’s safe to say that this number will have surged throughout the pandemic.

For starters, while the shift to remote work may have given millions of workers what they’ve always wanted for years, it’s also true that working parents have had to juggle time between work and caring for their children, who were also at home due to lockdowns. Other remote workers have also reported problems “unplugging” from work while at home.

Bottom line? Employers must include stress in their risk assessments and identify measures to prevent it from affecting work. This is key, so managers can take action when necessary, helping employees stay productive.

3. It creates a more open environment

Unfortunately, there’s still a lot of stigma around mental health, particularly in the workplace, where health and safety policies usually focus only on physical health and safety. Employers can change the narrative around mental health simply by recognizing that it’s a problem and treating it the same way one would treat the flu or a cold.

However, it’s important to avoid paying lip service to workplace mental health. Workers should feel empowered to take a sick day if they need to do so for their mental wellness.