The Health Media Centre

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

Today we join the rest of the world to commemorate Mental Health Day with the theme, ‘mental health at work’. About 14 million Ugandans have a mental illness which impacts their productivity, income and quality of life. People who experience mental illness are often excluded from work and those that manage to work do not have adequate support to cope and thrive, despite participation in work being a key contributor to recovery.

An estimated 19 percent of Ugandans are employed, demonstrating the significance of mental health at work. Moreover, workplace mental health contributes to improved productivity, performance, staff retention and job satisfaction. The Lancet Global Health estimates that mental illness will cost about USD$6 trillion in terms of global productivity by 2030.

Everyone can play an active and significant role in maintaining mental health at work. Employees should take care of their mental health by learning techniques to manage stress, remain aware of changes in their mental health and reach out for support when they need it, from family, friends, managers, and health professionals. Regular conversations with colleagues are vital in breaking stigma and discrimination and helpful in normalising discussions about mental health at work. This makes it easier for people to share information about underlying mental illnesses and an opportunity to provide support.

Employers should integrate and strengthen mental health into human resource management procedures as well as provide training for managers and all staff to protect, promote and support mental health. These interventions should be co-designed with employees including those with living and lived experience to encourage a positive workplace culture where mental health is everyone’s responsibility and people feel safe to talk about it.

A positive workplace culture entails robust measures to mitigate and manage mental illness risks and triggers such as excessive workloads, long and inflexible hours, inadequate pay, unsafe working conditions, job insecurity, limited support, bullying, and work-related violence. Additionally, strengthening workplace health and safety by providing a safe and confidential reporting mechanism contributes to and identifying mental illness risks, adapting timely interventions that enable employees to prosper as well as supporting employees who are recovering.

Managers should demonstrate commitment to building a mentally healthy workplace by implementing favourable and meaningful policies and procedures. Managers should also invest in attaining relevant knowledge and skills to enable them to effectively empower and support their teams to remain productive, while mitigating work-related mental illness risks.

At the national level, government should strengthen existing regulations and work with employees, employers and researchers to continuously monitor and evaluate the implementation and impact of laws, standards, and policies for mental health at work, to promote compliance, accountability and innovation.

It is particularly important to strengthen protection measures, awareness programmes and services for people working in the informal economy such as home-based workers, market and street vendors, as they often face a host of mental health risks such as poor working environments and discrimination.

Currently, there is limited access to mental health services especially in rural and remote areas. Strengthening the national health system is important to ensure access to quality mental health services to all who need them at the right time. There is also need to upskill mental health professionals to ensure that care is provided using latest approaches.

To sustain the impact of workplace mental health interventions, it is imperative to the address social determinants of mental health through an integrated and wide-ranging approach because people who are exposed to unfavourable social circumstances are more susceptible to poor mental health.

Mental illnesses have extensive economic costs for individuals, communities, therefore, investing in mental health at work by all actors will contribute to positive ripple effects at all levels of the workplace and society.

Written by Dr Anne Nattembo