Workplace Wellbeing

World Mental Health Day is an annual awareness day taking place on 10 October. It is an opportunity to raise awareness of key issues surrounding mental health and advocate for positive change. This year’s theme, which was chosen by the World Federation of Mental Health, is ‘It’s time to prioritise mental health in the workplace’.

We know that better understanding of and support for mental health at work has far-reaching benefits, particularly for people living with poor mental health and/or illness. A positive work environment can give people a sense of security, confidence, purpose, achievement, a structured routine, and an opportunity to build positive relationships.

Almost 60% of the world’s population is employed according to the World Health Organization. The average worker works 36.4 hours per week which means UK workers spend 19% of every year working and a large proportion of every week at work, highlighting the importance of healthy work environments.

The Association of Mental Health Providers conducted a public survey to investigate whether workplaces are supporting employees’ mental health, what barriers people face when discussing their concerns, and what potential solutions exist for organisations to truly support mental health at work.

The following page contains our survey findings, which were obtained via the Association’s social media channels and bulletins. Respondents remained anonymous to avoid any issues related to confidentiality.

There was a mixture of sector responses from the NHS to Retail to the Education sector. However, the majority of respondents (48%) worked in the Charity sector. 86% identified as Female and 14% as Male. Many of our responses were from people aged 45+ (67%) and only 33% were from those aged 25-44.

Key findings:

• Less than half of our survey respondents said that their workplace environment was above average in terms of mental health support.
• 43% of responses indicated that they felt overwhelmed at work always or often.
• When asked what the biggest barriers to discussing mental health in the workplace were, 75% of responses showed that the biggest concern was the fear of a negative impact.
• 62% of respondents said that their workplace provides resources and support for mental health.
• Flexible working hours (30%), mental health days (25%) and free counselling services (20%) were cited as the top three types of mental health support employees would find beneficial.

Additional comments highlighted potential solutions including:

• A national standard for workplace mental health support.
• A healthy workplace culture whereby leaders model behaviour.
• Manageable workloads to prevent burnout and mental health from worsening.