How to Support Mental Health: An Office Guide

Health October 9, 2019

This post was last updated on July 26th, 2020

Mental Health Guide

In recent years Britain’s stress levels have risen for many people. Everywhere we look, there’s a new statistic to tell us just how miserable, burnt out, and fundamentally abandoned we are: one recent survey reported that only 13 per cent of people in the UK would say they are in good mental health.

Putting that statistic in some context: the current UK population stands at 67,613,395*. If, on average, only 13 per cent of the population feels as though they are enjoying a good level of mental health, that means a whopping 58,823,654 people are dealing with below-average mental health.

Hypothetically speaking, if 13% of people in a company that has 50 employees are happy, that leaves 43 employees struggling with mental health related issues.

It’s apparent that good mental health practices need implementing in the workplace to help support people. But how can employers and employees go about doing this? As with any problem, the first step is to identify exactly what it is…

How to differentiate between mental illness and mental health

Although mental health and mental illness are often used interchangeably, there is a distinctive difference between them. Both need to be handled in the workplace with equal levels of respect and understanding, and in many cases, both are manageable for a person in order to perform as well as their co-workers who suffer neither mental illness nor poor mental health.

In order to deliver a high standard of management within the workplace, it’s important to know the difference between the two. On his recent visit to South Africa, the Duke of Sussex defined the two matters best by saying:

“I think most of the stigma is around mental illness, we need to separate the two… mental health, which is every single one of us, and mental illness, which could be every single one of us.”

In the same way everyone deals with their physical health on a daily basis, everyone deals with mental health too. Some people are physically healthy, while some people have physical illnesses they deal with on a daily basis. An external factor can impact your physical health — for example, someone who is physically healthy walks into a room filled with smoke. They start coughing, and their physical health decreases in that situation. But for someone with a physical illness they deal with every day, a flare-up of symptoms can cause their physical health to decrease without any outside cause (like the smoke!). But, if that person were to walk into the same room of smoke, they would start coughing like the physically healthy person would, only to a heightened degree.

With reference to this, someone who is mentally healthy can have a bad day, however this is different to having a mental illness. This causes their mental health to decrease — and it’s an understandable reaction to a negative event. But someone with mental illness may feel that way without any obvious outside influence (like the bad day at work scenario). Again, should the person with mental illness have a bad day at work too, they might feel the impact of this outside influence to a much greater degree. Of course, that’s not to say that’s always the case — someone with a mental illness can be mentally healthy and coping well. Someone without a mental illness can be mentally unhealthy and not coping.

The correct way to support mental health and mental illness at work

A productive workforce is a one that is happy, as cliché as that may sound. Businesses can do several things to not only support employees coping with mental illness, but also support positive day-to-day mental health across the workforce. Often, these processes go hand-in-hand, but there are a few things companies can do to specifically tailor to one or the other.

Educate people at work on the matter

To help create a sense of openness and understanding, holding talks for employees within the workplace can be hugely beneficial. Many people may erroneously think a mental illness automatically disqualifies someone from working or think that poor mental health is a sign of weakness. Both of these viewpoints can be wildly detrimental to other employees, who may not have spoken openly about their struggles and fear to do so upon hearing this from their colleagues.

Encouraging a creative and positive mindset in the workplace.There are numerous charities and experts who would be more than happy to come into the workplace to give a talk on the realities of mental health and mental illness, and help to disperse any stereotypes or falsehoods regarding the issues.

Instead of waiting for a nationally dedicated day to raise awareness of mental health, why not create a workshop day for the cause? Then after, set aside some time to allow people to ask any questions or queries they might have to encourage discussion. You could make a coffee morning of it with beautiful garden plants and an array of cakes on offer, hot beverages, or a slushy machine if you’re hosting in the summer months! This type of event will make for a much more open and supportive network among staff. They will learn how to approach co-workers they may be concerned for, or how to reach out if they themselves are dealing with a difficult time.

Flexibility in the workplace

To help ease the pressure on mental health, there are processes and practices that can be implemented into a company. The goal is to make the office environment as relaxed as possible — the work itself might be stressful, but the environment should balance out to avoid natural stress becoming unmanageable anxiety. After all, a comfortable worker can tackle a difficult task better than an uncomfortable one.

Make sure to take the time to reflect on your workplace processes too. For example, open-plan offices are popular in the workplace right now, and it certainly has its benefits. It prevents silo-working, encourages communication, and dispels some of the hierarchal feeling that can develop in cubicle-style work. People can ask for feedback easier in an open-plan office, and this can promote a more efficient creativity.

Alternatively, open-plan offices can be a challenging concept for those with anxiety and/or autism to comprehend. The sense of being in a crowd can be uncomfortable for some, and people with anxiety disorders or autism can struggle in noisy, chaotic environments — too much noise, from office music or chatter, can overwhelm an employee with autism, for example, due to auditory sensitivity. An anxious employee might find it difficult to work in an open-plan office, but not impossible on a good day. But on a bad day, it could be overbearing. Having the option to work away from the open-style office could be a beneficial perk to some employees, whether this is a dedicated “quiet room” for intensive tasks that require a lot of concentration, or the option to work from home on days when a person’s mental health isn’t at its best.

To conclude, several people are battling with the daily struggle of poor mental health or a mental illness whilst being at work. Many people do so perfectly successfully too! But it is beneficial to both employers and employees to ensure flexibility and support are on hand at work to help everyone when needed.

*Number correct as of 24th September 2019

Sources

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