There is no time like now to improve and raise awareness regarding mental health in the workplace in Ireland. According to a well-being study, mental health is about to be the biggest challenge that employees may face in the next 5 years.
According to mental health Ireland, “Ireland has one of the highest rates (3/36 countries) of mental health illness in Europe with 18.5% of the Irish population recorded as having a mental health illness such as anxiety, bipolar disorder, depression, or alcohol/drug use since 2016.”
Many individuals leverage online urgent cash loans in Ireland for medical emergencies and psychological consultations and join meditation workshops. The issue is a severe cause of concern.
Raising mental health awareness in the workplace is as vital as committing to business goals.
Mental health is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a state of wellbeing in which every individual realizes one’s potential, can work and cope with a usually stressful situation in life and work productively and fruitfully to contribute to his well-being and business as well.
How To Create Mental Health Awareness and help Employees?
1) Create inclusive policies
Amending policies is the only way to change the process and introduce a caring factor in the workplace. According to CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), the following factors can lead to depression:
- Unrealistic job demands
- Elongated working hours
- Lack of social interaction and support
- Mis-communication with leaders
- Limited freedom at work
You can use these points to evaluate mental health in your organization and work with the department and team to figure out ways to ease stress.
Having a well-defined policy that aligns with the employees’ best interests will help you prevent discrimination, harassment, and the prevalence of mental health stereotypes in the office.
However, if you have a well-defined setup regarding mental health in your workplace already, review it from time to time and make the changes.
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2) Encourage a healthy work-life balance.
Praising and encouraging employees to work late if working remotely can affect their mental health and the company growth statistics as well in the long run. It is because, without a healthy work-life balance, employees are like feeling burn-out and neglected. For this, you can do the following things:
- Allow them to take a leave to unwind from the stress
- Don’t contact or expect the employee to revert the email after office hours
- Launch different insurance policy covers that include employees and their families
3) Educate employees about mental health
Most employees at the workplace are hesitant to open up about mental issues they might suffer from. And this makes the situation worse further.
Thus, educating employees and supervisors about how to converse openly about mental problems in the workspace will help evade the employee burnout thing.
They may feel relieved. The reason is that employees do not feel comfortable sharing their issues with supervisors or managers.
For this, the company needs to befriend employees and lend ears to issues they are facing. The supervisor needs to be a pillar of support for the employees. It will help employees get comfortable discussing their problems.
4) Host discussion sessions
Hosting active mental health discussion sessions in the workplace can work wonders. Employees will also be encouraged to share their feelings through this initiative, which will promote mental health awareness in the workplace.
HRs should stress hosting interesting discussion sessions or one-on-one sessions once a week. The employees and staff should be comfortable in voicing out their opinions on any issue they are facing in their lives. These interactive sessions will help develop a bond between employee and supervisor and thus will promote the company’s growth.
After discussion, share a mental health awareness brochure, information, and tips on how to overcome stress and anxiety with employees. It will help your employees feel valued and eliminate every obstacle to delivering exceptional performance at the workplace.
5) Launch mental health programs for employees
EAPs: Employee Assistance Programs fill in as a valuable manner to spread mindfulness about mental wellness. Including your employees in such projects is a mutually beneficial arrangement for the two businesses and employees.
In working environments, these programs are implemented with employee support because they want their managers to assist them in resolving matters detrimental to their psychological and physical well-being.
Stress management programs and tools, guiding meetings, mental screenings, and even workshops would fall into the class of EAPs. Every one project referenced above will support your group’s emotional wellbeing. A one-on-one meeting is frequently productive because it empowers the person to talk their heart out without a second thought.
Instructors must be exceptionally knowledgeable about this to occur. The person likewise must console enough for employees to trust in them. As a business, you need to ensure that.
As far as workshops are concerned, welcome an eminent speaker or a specialist adequately able to bring issues to light regarding psychological well-being.
In this way, furnishing your employees with referenced resources will make them mindful of what they are going through intellectually, how to adapt to the circumstance, and which asset to use. The result is your staff emerging from their concerns in a more powerful way.
6) Support employee concerns
While most employees take a day’s leave and visit the psychiatrist, many are shy about telling the actual reason for an immediate off. Make it clear and start healthy operations and programs that help employees believe in your policies.
That you are equally concerned about their mental status as they are. Do whatever you can do to make an employee feel at home, like giving him the day off or offering a flexible work schedule so that he/she can attend their mental therapy without issues. Clarify that you won’t penalize them for uttering the truth.
7) Eliminate the stigma
Encourage stress management, mental health meetings, and a self-care approach among employees and eliminate the “stigma” from the workspace. When employees trust you, they are likely to open up about the issues they are facing and thus may arrive at a solution with your guidance and support.
Mental wellbeing shows distinctively for everybody and can meet with different parts of an individual’s personality. For instance, an individual’s orientation, sexual direction, race, identity, age, religion, age, and financial foundation like pending quick loans Ireland repayments can all influence their emotional well-being.
Because of these distinctions, you may find it useful to involve your organization’s diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) group when evaluating your organization’s psychological well-being strategies. Therefore, address mental issues in the workplace with mutual understanding, cooperation, and a culture of openness. Take action and have honest conversations about mental health with employees. It will help you build a supportive culture in the office.