How to fight rising mental health disorders in your organisation?
When a high-performing career woman, a new mother and a devoted wife gets entangled in trying to meet the expectations of modern society’s increasingly stressful demands, more often than not it results in her succumbing to its pressures. Similar is the result when an extremely bright, young college graduate, new husband and perhaps the only male child in the family tries to navigate the rules of today’s competitive corporate world.
Nearly one in every three employees, working with large and small companies in our country today, suffers from anxiety and depression – the two most common causes of mental health issues and more than 45% of entire employed workforce is facing this, according to published statistics.
The oft-used term to describe the corporate world today is ‘VUCA’, which stands for one where volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity seem to call the shots and frame rules. This has resulted in increasing stress for employees, their managers and top management of businesses – unrealistic demands, targets, euphoric highs followed by extreme lows, sleep deprivation, dissatisfaction and fears - it is not uncommon to then see stress snowball into anxiety and depression.
Mental health issues like postpartum, schizophrenia, phobias, bipolar disorder, body image issues like weight management, anorexia are on the rise in today’s offices and working conditions are not at all equipped to identify these issues to begin with. Stigmas associated with any form of mental health problems prevent them from being addressed in most companies. Even as early as last year, at least two high-profile young corporate executives committed suicide due to increased stress leading to acute clinical depression. Globally, WHO data states that depression is the leading cause of suicides among 15-to-29-year olds and over 350 million people suffer from it.
Such alarming statistics call for necessary intervention and increased awareness about depression and anxiety in the first place and corporate human resources teams can perhaps take the initiative. While some companies are waking up and offering assistance in order to cope with these issues, in many cases, help becomes difficult when employees themselves are unaware that they suffer from one or other forms of depression. Instead, these are often dismissed as ‘mood swings’, leading to severe repercussions later on. Companies must make the effort to ensure managers are aware and note if any member in their team displays signs of depression such as increased absenteeism, substance abuse, conflicts with co-workers and dwindling performance. Organisations must provide an outlet for employees to voice their grievances and concerns and make it anonymous, if need be. Efforts may be undertaken to encourage and support seeking of professional help from counsellors at early stages.
Workshops and sessions with new parents to help them cope with increased responsibilities, voluntary child-care facilities and day-care assistance for new fathers are some of the other initiatives that organisations can encourage for their employees. Managers must be encouraged to build better relationships with their team and understand their personal commitments, while at the same time more efforts undertaken to strengthen employee engagement within the organisation. Such activities may be undertaken especially leveraging occasions such as World Mental Health Day, to further sensitize the workforce and create awareness.
After all, if mental health disorders go undetected, it affects productivity, morale and performance and can ultimately affect business’ bottom lines.
(This article is contributed by PEACFUL MIND FOUNDATION)
