Workplaces have gained the attention of various stakeholders in the Mental Health field because of the amount of time given by the working population in their lifetime. Globally, it is estimated that 15% of the working population has at least one mental health condition. Different workplaces have had to change their strategies and models to accommodate the dynamic changes in the business environment characterized by globalization, demographic shifts and climate change among others and further adopt work arrangements such teleworking or flextime. These changes come with them a myriad of mental adjustments to the organization's leaders, managers and their employees.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) unveiled the “National Guidelines on Workplace Mental Wellness” in September 2023 to provide guidelines on implementing strategic interventions that create a working environment that prevents and promotes mental health. In other words, there are certain inherent factors in the organization that can cause the development of mental health conditions in the workforce or even increase severity to existing conditions. These are what are referred to as psychosocial risk factors and include the job design, the organizational culture, the work-life balance, equipment and environment, scheduling, work content, workload and role in the organization. In summary the guidelines highlight the following:
- Identifying and recognizing the risk factors does not stop there. There is a need for implementing evidence-based strategies in promoting the mental well-being of the workforce. These are scientific and clinical approaches that are employed in developing the preventative, promotive or care management of the workforce.
- The approaches to creating a safe and healthy environment overlap between preventative, promotive and care management. Preventative means approaches that are geared to ensuring that the mental health status of the employees is maintained. Promotive are approaches that build knowledge on workplace mental health and increase employee participation and care management are approaches that support those with distress and with mental health conditions to receive accommodative work arrangements and engage other experts in managing their conditions such as a therapist or psychiatrist.
- There are three different levels of interventions that can be employed: Organizational, Manager/Supervisor and/or individual employees. Organizational interventions deal with the job/work environment, job design and organizational culture. Intervention at manager/supervisor level interventions are aimed at building attitudes and knowledge on mental health that can aid in supporting the workforce and to enable timely and effective responses to those who are experiencing distresses, thus linking them to the appropriate care management system. Interventions at individual level aim at building capacity for the individual to be resilient and proactive in seeking support in times of distress. This can also take the shape and form of individual therapy/counselling in a safe and confidential environment on issues that may or may not be work related and are affecting productivity at work.
- A guidance on creating a “Workplace Mental Wellness Programs (WMWPs)” has been outlined which assist employees to identify and address psychological, environmental and social issues that affect their mental wellness. This is an organization-led program led by a committee appointed by the organization's leadership whose members are a Mental health professional(s) Human resource manager, Trade Union representatives, Occupational health and safety, Finance and administration, persons with lived experiences, mid-level and senior management and any other that may be deemed necessary to join the committee. Through the committee, a budget is costed, policy documents on mental wellness developed, communication of the policy to the overall organization is discussed and monitoring and evaluation approaches are documented.
There you have it! You can check out the Guidelines document here, share with others and feel free to reach out should you need professional support in creating a mentally healthy workplace for optimized productivity and synergy.
