Out today! The Business in the Community 2018 Mental Health at Work report, which findings include although 85% of managers acknowledge that employee wellbeing is their responsibility, only 30% receive any training. Ahead of World Mental Health Day on the 10th October, Business in the Community are calling on employers to talk about mental health at work, train line managers and take action!
Our Director of Employee Health Dr, Steve Boorman CBE was invited to provide his expert opinion on the survey findings:
“While I have worked for many years, with many different employers, as a specialist in occupational health, and therefore should not be surprised by findings in this report, I do find the data reported here deeply shocking.”
“With recent major reviews such as Thriving at Work from Lord Stevenson and Paul Farmer, and Matthew Taylor’s review on “Good Work” it is worrying that while there is growing recognition that managers should accept responsibility for employee wellbeing, improvements in support since the original report in 2016 have fallen back. Too many employees are frightened to disclose a mental health need for fear of negative consequence or lack of action. The report also clearly highlights key needs to improve support for those with financial worries and for taking action to address the discrimination experienced by those in the LBGT+ communities.”
“I am pleased that the Government’s Work and Health Unit has recently asked The Council for Work and Health to undertake work to provide a resource for health care practitioners, employees and employers to enable positive and open conversations on reasonable adjustments to work and the workplace to better fit workers health needs. This report highlights how important it is that line managers are not afraid to act to support the many workers who experience mental ill health. It is time that all employers take this responsibility seriously and do not perpetuate the culture of silence that results in less than half of workers in this survey being willing to talk to their managers about mental health needs.”
“I have been invited to present at next year’s NEC HWB conference on making reasonable adjustments for those with mental health conditions, which links to the issues identified in the survey nicely.”
