We welcome new study into mental health at work

St Andrew’s Healthcare has welcomed the publication of the Thriving at Work report, which looks at how employers can best support members of staff to not only manage their mental health, but thrive within the workplace.

Published on Thursday 26th October 2017 by the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department of Health, the report explored the significant cost of poor mental health to UK businesses and the economy as a whole.

The report’s findings are significant, finding that poor mental health costs the UK economy between £74 billion and £99 billion a year, and annually costing employers between £33 billion and £42 billion. The review found that over half this cost comes from presenteeism – when individuals are less productive due to poor mental health in work – with additional costs from sickness absence and staff turnover.

The report calls on all employers to support members of staff by adopting six mental health core standards, including: ‘Ensure provision of tailored in-house mental health support and signposting to clinical help’.

“Many organisations are now recognising the positive link between employee wellbeing and productivity,” explained Sam Cooper-Evans, Lead Consultant Psychologist at St Andrew’s Healthcare. “The stigma surrounding mental health is reducing, and there is significant support available. It is important that workplaces embed the idea that it is okay for people to ask for help if they feel they need it.”

St Andrew’s Healthcare provides a variety of services for employers and businesses in order to help improve mental health in the workplace. We are currently working with universities, banks and building societies, and other healthcare providers to offer support to employees. St Andrew’s Healthcare offers mental health awareness training, stress reduction techniques, mindfulness sessions and weekly psychology drop-in clinics for fast access to support and signposting to other services for clinical help. All of these services are very much in line with the recommendations from the report.

St Andrew’s Healthcare is also able to work with businesses in order to achieve other recommendations from the report, such as: developing mental wellbeing plans; advice on maintaining a healthy work-life balance; running training sessions for all staff to raise awareness of mental health; and more specific training sessions for managers in order to give advice and consultation on how to support employees who are struggling. We can also develop staff surveys in order to monitor the health and wellbeing of employees.

For more information visit www.standrewstherapy.co.uk or contact us (01604 616180 or via email) to find out how we could help you.

• Produce, implement and communicate a mental health at work plan
• Develop mental health awareness among employees
• Encourage open conversations about mental health and the support available when employees are struggling
• Provide employees with good working conditions and ensure they have a healthy work life balance and opportunities for development
• Promote effective people management through line managers and supervisors
• Routinely monitor employee mental health and wellbeing

 St Andrew’s Healthcare recently hosted a Mental Health Boot Camp, where we welcomed local businesses to share best practice for managing mental health issues in the workplace. We were able to highlight the simple changes that people can make in order to achieve a better work-life balance.

Click here to view our Little Book of Work-Life balance, giving you simple tips on how to improve workplace mental health.