Right now, someone in your team may very likely be silently suffering with poor mental health.
Would you know how to read the signs? Would you be able to identify the severity of their mental distress?
Would you feel confident in your ability to provide your team member with the appropriate support?
Would you be able to step up if a team member admitted to depression or even thoughts of suicide?
For those courageous enough to take up the mantle of leadership, the call to accountability for the mental health of their team members is growing ever louder.
Mental Health Statistics
In the 2020 General Social Survey, nearly 20% of New Zealanders were identified as having poor mental wellbeing. This data was collected post-Covid alert level 4 and is consistent with findings from previous years.
These results are echoed in the 2019/2020 New Zealand Health Survey which shows that one-fifth of the population suffer from a mood or anxiety disorder. This number has been steadily climbing since 2006 where it measured a more reserved 12.7%.
Data from the 2015, 2016, and 2018 New Zealand Mental Health Monitors and the 2018 New Zealand Health and Lifestyles Survey show that that almost one-third of people had a personal experience of mental distress (31%).
Over one-third of people who were currently experiencing high mental distress (36%) report being discriminated against because of their mental distress and that discrimination was most commonly experienced in the workplace.
The fact that many still fear opening up about experiencing mental distress, whether mild or severe, is almost ironic given that this human experience is so very common. In fact, most people know someone (77%) who experiences mental distress.
Poor employee mental wellbeing takes a huge toll on the employee, the team, the organisation and the economy. It impacts productivity, turnover, sickness and absenteeism. It affects employee life satisfaction, job performance and physical health, which places a further financial and workforce burden on the organisation.
A 2018 review of studies conducted in Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the EU-15 showed the annual economic costs of work-related stress to range between US$221.13 million to $187 billion. The costs were primarily due to productivity related losses, followed by healthcare and medical costs.
The Southern Cross Workplace Wellness report gives an indication of the cost to the New Zealand economy, with $1.79 billion due to absenteeism, which makes up an estimated third of the hidden cost of presenteeism (when workers are at the workplace but not mentally engaged with work).
15 April & 27 July, Hamilton, NZ.
Mental Health to Lead
In our public workshops, learn how to:
identify signs of poor mental health in your staff.
confidently provide the appropriate supports.
identify and manage risks to employee mental health present in your workplace.
Leader Accountability for Mental Health in the Workplace
The Employment Relations Act 2000, the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, the Human Rights Amendment Act 2001 and Health and Safety Strategy 2018-2028 all assign a duty of care and protection by organisations and their selected leadership to the mental wellbeing of their workforce.
While the Health and Safety at Work Act does not make it mandatory to implement steps to minimise or eliminate risks of psychological harm in the workplace, legally, employers are liable where evidence finds that reasonable steps were not taken where a risk was known.
The reality is that the risk of psychological harm/injury to employees are just as likely, if not more likely, than the risk of physical injury given the pressures, insecurity and cognitive load that comes with modern day jobs.
All evidence points to the value of taking employee mental health seriously and acting early. Managers are ideally placed to do just that.
Identifying Signs of Poor Mental Health
Mental distress and signs of mental illness or disorder can present in many ways. We all have mental health (yes!), which can fluctuate across a spectrum of thriving to mental illness. Knowing how to tell the difference between ‘I’m not doing so great’ versus ‘I’m at rock bottom’ is important. Once we know what to look out for, identifying the signs become much easier.
Certain changes in behaviour, performance, mood, thinking and communication, personality, social interaction, wellbeing habits and even self-care can all be signals to pay attention. Change in itself is not an indicator. Before taking actions, leaders should consider a range of factors beyond what changes they are observing in their team member. Some factors include: context, duration, and magnitude of the changes observed.
Supporting the Mental Health of Team Members in Distress
The ability to identify signs of distress allows managers to offer the right type of support early on. The earlier help is provided, the more likelihood there is of a good outcome. Acting as the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff is a form of a tertiary intervention. Tertiary approaches are often reactive, costly and less effective than secondary and primary intervention strategies which aim to avoid or limit psychological risk in the first place.
Providing support is crucial, however, doing it well is even more important. When we get it wrong, we further risk the mental health of those we are trying to help. Support should be provided in a manner that feels safe to both parties.
A supportive conversation, while possibly highly uncomfortable, can be done quite effectively with a simple framework, a few basic skills and some practical considerations.
15 April & 27 July, Hamilton, NZ.
Mental Health to Lead
In our public workshops, learn how to:
identify signs of poor mental health in your staff.
confidently provide the appropriate supports.
identify and manage risks to employee mental health present in your workplace.
In next month’s blog we will continue the conversation of the role of leaders in employee mental health, with a closer look at identifying and managing psychosocial risks in the work environment.
Blog by Ance Strydom