Employers must address mental health and wellness

Employers must address mental health and wellness as they would other health and safety matters, and with widespread acknowledgement of the cost of mental health issues to employers, individuals, and the health service, there’s diminishing tolerance and protection for employers who choose to do nothing, according to VinciWorks.

The firm has produced a guide for employers and employees, Mental health and psychological safety: A guide to wellbeing and compliance, which notes that there is a legal requirement for employers to address mental health and wellness as they would other health and safety matters. It says employers have a legal responsibility to help their employees regardless of whether work is causing the health issue or aggravating it. Employers may have further legal requirements to make reasonable adjustments under the UK’s Equality Act.

VinciWorks questions whether mental health first aiders are enough: “While mental health first aid (MHFA) can bring many benefits to the workplace, employee wellbeing may still be at risk if MHFA programmes are not implemented properly. Poorly understood and badly delivered MHFA programmes in the workplace can even result in decreased employee wellbeing.”

It notes: “It could be damaging for both the mental health of the person experiencing the issues as well as the first aider themselves to expect a two-day training course to equip them with all the skills they need to deal with people experiencing a crisis. While mental health first aid can be an important part of a package of measures designed to support the mental health and wellbeing of staff, employers should be wary of assuming this will fully satisfy their duty of care.”

The guide says one key element of encouraging psychological safety is ensuring that people from marginalised groups feel their contributions are encouraged. “It can be significantly harder for people from certain groups often discriminated against in the workplace to speak up, so without a strong commitment to making that a reality, a state of psychological safety will not exist,” says VinciWorks.

A survey by Mind revealed that half of UK workers have experienced a mental health crisis at their current job, with only half of them talking to their employer about their issue. A Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development study on mental ill health found that 37% of sufferers are more likely to get into conflict with colleagues, 57% find it harder to juggle multiple tasks, 80% find it difficult to concentrate, 62% take longer to do tasks and 50% are potentially less patient with customers/clients.

The guide highlights the legal position, noting that a person with an ongoing mental health condition will likely meet the definition of disabled under the Equality Act. Therefore, they are protected from discrimination and harassment, and are entitled to reasonable adjustments at work.