Managing Mental Health at Work

Mental health is something that does not start and stop at the entrance to the workplace. If your employees are having mental health challenges, this will likely have an impact on their work or their mood/behaviour while at work.

Sharing your mental health can be difficult, and if one of your team share this with you it is important to listen, and to ask questions. Provide a safe environment where they feel free to share their challenges, ask about how you can help. While you are not a trained counsellor (make sure you do not step into this role), listening and asking how you can help can go a long way to helping your employee. Providing support as an employer, like counselling or time off if needed can show support and your employee is much more likely to show mental health improvements as a result.

How can you help?

·      Listen

·      Ask about what support they have currently –Doctor, counsellor, do they have family/friend support.

·      Ask them for information about what it is like for them, and what they find a hinderance/help (e.g., deadlines, early mornings, quiet spaces).

·      Ask if work is playing a negative role in their mental health, and together find ways to remove any factors (hazards).

·      Maintain confidentiality, do not share people’s personal details or health concerns with anyone else.

·      Provide your employee with access to counselling or time off for counselling if you can.

·      If you think someone is struggling with their mental health but they have not raised it with you, take a quiet moment to ask them if they are ok.

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What are your obligations?

·       The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 seeks to protect employees’ health and wellbeing, and this includes mental health.

·      Employers have an obligation to protect their workers from work related risks/factors that could cause harm to their mental health, and need to take steps to eliminate, or if that is not possible, minimise those risks.

·      Some obvious workplace hazards to mental health include bullying, workplace fatigue and/or stress caused by an employee’s workload, physical environment (noisy/busy/hot).

·       Ask whether their mental health condition has been caused (or intensified) by the workplace or work. If it is, you should work with the employee to try to eliminate, or if that is not possible, minimise the problem which is impacting on the employee’s mental health.

Create a plan together: Try to help the employee stay at work, as this is likely to have a positive impact. Try to create a plan together. It could include some temporary changes, like changing a start time, removing a specific type of work that has a negative impact on the individual(e.g., deadlines/stressful meetings/difficult clients), changing their work environment (e.g., to a cooler office, a quieter space). All this needs to be done together, ensuring you are supporting the employee and they do not feel like you are punishing them by changing or removing things. Remember people with mental health issues are not necessarily viewing other people’s actions in the way they are intended.

Ensure your employee understands your expectations, for example:

·       if you expect them to call you if they need to stay home,

·       if you require them to complete a certain type of work first,

·       if you need them to communicate with you directly if their mental health deteriorates,

·       if they take medication that may impact their work (e.g., concentration, driving) ask them to let you know.

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Remember that if you need advice from a medical practitioner, talk to your employee about gaining further insight or information from their doctor/health care provider with the employee’s consent. Ask your employee to keep openly communicating with you, it may take some time until their condition is manageable.