MENTAL HEALTH Cont. from page 38
opting to struggle on in silence at work, feeling they need to put on a ‘brave face’ and unable to ask for support, for fear of discrimination – and even demotion or dismissal.
However, few employees actually want to hide their stress levels from their managers. In Mind’s poll, 70 per cent wanted to be able to discuss stress with their employers and one third want their boss to make the first move and approach them directly when they are showing signs of strain.
But given the poor awareness of mental health among employers – the Shaw Trust found 70 per cent believe only five per cent or fewer of their employees would experience mental ill health7 – and the current pressures on workforces, it’s understandable that people shy away from speaking up, to avoid being seen as unreliable or the only person who ‘can’t cope’.
Let’s be clear – stress or mental distress is not a sign of weakness. We must debunk the myth that stress is a healthy, necessary part of a competitive, successful business and people should be able to just ‘handle it’.
Mind knows pressure is a normal part of working life and can have a positive effect in stimulating motivation and mental alertness. But if pressure becomes too great, or is never relieved, this can lead to stress, feelings of anger and frustration, and physical and mental health problems – ranging from insomnia, muscle pain and heart palpitations to an inability to concentrate, extreme anxiety and withdrawal from social contact. People need to be able to raise stress with their employers so that problems don’t snowball, and a manageable issue turns into a mental health crisis, ending up
Nov/Dec 10 in staff being signed off sick.
What can be done? So what can employers do to protect their employees and their businesses from the damaging impact of stress and mental distress at work? Generally, we need to move from a culture of denial to a culture of openness.
Promoting an open, supportive environment where employees’ mental health is valued helps people feel more comfortable to disclose and means employers can then put in place the right support to help the individual and the business. The key thing to remember is that small changes can bring huge results.
To be more specific, Mind recommends a three-pronged approach to developing a comprehensive mental wellbeing strategy:
1. Promote wellbeing Good management can be the key to unlocking the potential of staff, reducing uncertainty and preventing extreme stress. Encouraging a good work/life balance, engaging employees in their work, allowing flexible hours or home working, promoting positive working relationships and social activities are all important.
2. Tackle the causes of mental ill health
Work environment and culture can be the cause of stress and mental distress. Solutions include improving the physical environment, managing workloads among staff, training managers in spotting signs of stress and supporting staff, implementing a mentoring or
FOR MORE INFORMATION
For more information on the ‘Taking care of business’ campaign and Mind’s resources to support employers and employees:
E:
a.whitelock@mind.org.uk. W:
www.mind.org.uk/work
buddy scheme, offering on-the- job coaching, sticking to regular supervisions.
3. Support staff who disclose mental distress
Staff must feel able to speak up and confident they will be offered the support they need to stay in or return to work.
Everyone’s experience of mental distress is different, so rules of thumb are to establish honest, open communication with the employee, focus on the person not the problem, work together to develop a personal action plan which identifies triggers for distress and what support the employee would like – and always respect confidentiality of sensitive information.
Addressing mental wellbeing can save employers 30 per cent of the costs due to mental distress at work or £8billion a year.8 The benefits for employees, individually and collectively, are incalculable – but taking care of business can only mean healthier productivity, profits and people.
Amy Whitelock is senior policy and campaigns officer, Mind
Sinclair, A. and O’Reagon S. (2007) Mental health and work. Brighton: Institute
1
for Employment. 2
Populus interviewed 2,050 adults aged 18+ in England and Wales in March 2010:
http://www.mind.org.uk/news/3372_ workers_turn_to_antidepressants_as_
recession_takes_its_toll 3
Reported in The Times, 25 October 2010:
http://www.cipd.co.uk/news/inthenews/_
Archive/
Stress-related-absence-rises.htm 4
Reported on 28 October 2010: http://
www.tuc.org.uk/workplace/tuc-18721-
f0.cfm 5
Centre for Mental Health (2007) Mental health at work: developing the business
case. London: CMH 6
workplace taboo. 8
Populus poll for Mind. 7 Shaw Trust (2007) Mental health: the last
Centre for Mental Health (2007) Mental health at work: developing the business case. London: CMH
assessed either had dementia or a learning disability) would suggest that this aspect of the Act is not yet well embedded in people’s practice.
More encouraging results arose from responses to questions about how they actually carried out the assessments. In general, over 90% of people followed the code of practice as regards involving other people to give specialist advice, providing support to the person being assessed, taking into account cultural, ethnic or religious factors, providing the person with all the information necessary to make the decision or delaying the decision until the person had capacity. Furthermore, 76% of respondents indicated that they decided upon the person’s capacity in line with the code of practice and 86% made some form of written record of the assessment.
In conclusion, although the process of doing mental capacity assessments seems to be being carried out in accordance with the Act and code of practice, there still appears to be a worrying level of misunderstanding surrounding the reasons for undertaking an assessment in the first place. This includes significant levels of practice which appear to be in contravention to the fundamental principles of the Act. For senior health service managers and clinicians, this suggests that there is still a workforce development challenge to be met in order to ensure that healthcare staff fully understand how the Mental Capacity Act applies to their practice.
Toby Williamson is head of development & later life, Mental Health Foundation Initial findings from the Mental Health Foundation’s Assessment of Mental Capacity Audit Tool (AMCAT)
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