There are many benefits to being a mental health champion in the workplace, including benefits for the employer, for other employees, for people who have mental health issues, and for society as a whole.
Research suggests that each person experiencing depression takes three to four days off work per month as a direct result of that condition. Lost productivity then becomes a significant issue for individual employers. Australian workplaces, as a whole, lose over six million working days per year, in sick leave, due to the effects of mental illness. If mental illness is treated early and effectively then these losses can be minimised. An aware and supportive workplace will encourage and enable people to manage mental illness and continue to work productively.
One of the main obstacles people with mental illness face is the ill informed attitude that many people have toward mental illness. Because it is not visible, people in the workplace may not even realise that a co-worker has a mental illness. Too often stigma discourages people from being open about mental illness and subsequently benefiting from available workplace accommodations and supports.
Being a workplace mental health champion can involve raising overall awareness of mental health and mental illness, by providing general information to colleagues, as well as providing specific details on workplace supports and assistance that are available for people who have mental illness (as applicable).
Here are a few suggestions about how to develop this role:
- Equip yourself with knowledge about mental illness. People who have a mental illness will feel supported as a result. Mental Health First Aid in the Workplace e-learning courses for employers and co-workers help to foster a greater understanding of mental illness and how people with mental illness can be supported in the workplace and the wider community. For more information on specific mental illnesses see 'Related Links'.
- The Workplace Adjustment Tool can help you to better understand accommodation and support for people who have a mental illness in your work place.
- Encourage management to develop an understanding of mental illness and the sorts of accommodations and flexible work practices that they could make available for people who have a mental illness.
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Use promotional tools such as posters and articles in staff news bulletins, to dispel myths about mental illness and promote a culture of inclusion in the workplace.
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Use team meetings to discuss workplace mental health initiatives including stress awareness and reduction.
- Encourage management to implement an organisational health survey, to facilitate feedback about mental health and mental illness supports.
References
beyondblue, beyondblue: Opening our Eyes to Cost of Depression in the Workplace, <http://www.beyondblue.org.au/index.aspx?link_id=4.66&oid=418>.