May is Mental Health Awareness Month. There will be speeches, talks, articles, and posts on all forms of social media regarding mental health awareness. When the month is over, what will be different? For there to be a difference, employers, leaders, and teams must be called to examine the policies and cultures in their workplace and ask: Are we fostering a workplace that truly supports mental health and wellbeing?
The Scope of the Challenge
We now understand that one in five adults in the U.S. will experience a diagnosable mental health condition in a typical year. These may range from the acute experience of grief after the loss of a loved one to chronic conditions such as anxiety, depression, or substance use disorders. Substance use disorders give rise to a host of mental health challenges for the person with the substance use disorder and the nearly 19 million children raised in their homes.
Stigma, the harmful and often inaccurate beliefs about mental health and substance use disorders, make seeking help unnecessarily burdensome and unfairly embarrassing. Stigma is frequently the product of false and sometimes cultural beliefs about the full range of mental health conditions. These false beliefs are reinforced by language, for example, if a friend is being treated for cancer, you would commonly say that they have cancer, while the person being treated for depression is depressed, they become the condition rather than having the condition. When it comes to stigma and providing meaningful support, words matter!
The Quiet Epidemic of Workplace Bullying
While discussion of mental health and wellbeing in the workplace has become mainstream, an often overlooked and enormously harmful influence is workplace bullying.
Workplace bullying is delivered in many forms, such as verbal abuse, public humiliation, exclusion, sabotage, micromanagement, and withholding needed information or support. The impact on individuals’ physical, mental, and emotional health can be enormous. The effects include, but are not limited to, chronic anxiety, sleep disruption, burnout, physical illness, and emotional exhaustion. Employees subjected to workplace bullying become disengaged, have little to no incentive to make significant contributions to an organization that allows them to be mistreated. Bullied employees will eventually look for employment in a safer and more supportive environment.
How Do You Create a Supportive Workplace Culture?
Creating a supportive workplace culture is an intentional process. It is the culmination of a clear mission or understanding of why we exist, what we value and believe, what we believe to be right or wrong, good or bad, and how we behave and treat each other in the organization, and those we serve. These components are not single-instance initiatives but require sustained commitment from leadership to reinforce key policy areas, such as:
· Leadership sets the tone and provides a positive example
· Ongoing training for those in supervisory or management positions
· Policies regarding bullying and harassment that spell out the reporting process
· Accountability structures that support and reinforce the organization’s values
· Benefits programs that provide access to physical and mental health care
· Promotion of mental health resources, such as the Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
· Leadership sets the tone and provides a positive example
· Ongoing training for those in supervisory or management positions
· Policies regarding bullying and harassment that spell out the reporting process
· Accountability structures that support and reinforce the organization’s values
· Benefits programs that provide access to physical and mental health care
· Promotion of mental health resources, such as the Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
Leaders must envision the kind of culture they wish to build and own the responsibility for modeling inclusive, respectful, and growth-oriented behavior.
Removing Barriers to Help-Seeking
Individuals struggling with substance use disorders may wait five to six years or longer before seeking help, while those working with a mental health challenge may deny the need for assistance for up to eleven years. Much damage can be done to oneself and loved ones during those years. There are many barriers to seeking help, including financial costs, concerns about confidentiality, cultural norms within one’s family or community, and denial and stigma. These barriers are challenging but not insurmountable, and can be overcome with education for employees, training for those in leadership, and normalizing conversations about mental health.
A Call to Action for Your Organization!
A mentally healthy and supportive workplace is good business. Employees who feel supported are more engaged, productive, and motivated to contribute to the organization’s success. Investing in a mentally healthy workplace results in substantial savings accrued through reduced absenteeism, turnover, and healthcare costs.
· Create a mental health task force that represents ALL levels of the organization
· Assess your current culture and gaps in awareness and resources
· Develop or update policies related to workplace well-being, including harassment and bullying policies
· Provide education for all employees on mental health, communications, resilience, substance use disorders, and the organization’s EAP
· Train supervisors to intervene early with distressed employees and to use the EAP as a resource
· Reduce stigma around seeking help for mental health and substance use disorders. It is okay not to be OK!
· Promote your EAP continuously.