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1 July 2011
The organisation's recent survey of over 2,000 employees found that, since the recession, one in 10 had sought support from their GP and 7% had started taking antidepressants for stress and mental health problems directly caused by the pressure of the recession on their workplace. New government statistics have highlighted the biggest rise in antidepressant prescriptions ever, with 39.1 million issued in 2009, up from 35.9 million in 2008.
Half of those surveyed by Mind said staff morale was low and 28% were working longer hours than before the recession. Over the course of their careers, 22% of respondents had developed depression. Only 38% think that their current employer is doing enough to support them.
Mind is launching today a new five-year campaign Taking Care of Business with the aim of encouraging employers to address mental health in the workplace. Health Insurance magazine is supporting the campaign and you can find details of the insurers and other providers who have lent their support in the June issue of the magazine. We are encouraging providers to tell us how they are practising what they preach by supporting their own employees while urging our corporate adviser readers to ensure they are discussing both mental and physical health and wellbeing issues with their clients.
AXA PPP healthcare was the first provider to sign up.
Corporate support services manager Eugene Farrell said: "We support the principles underpinning Mind's Taking Care of Business initiative - not only are they the right thing to do in respect of addressing mental health issues at work, achieving them makes good business sense.
"At AXA we are committed to promoting the physical and psychological health and wellbeing of our people. Investing in employees' wellbeing is integral to enhancing their resilience, engagement and, in turn, performance and productivity and, as a part of our approach, we offer flexible working, access to psychological support (including confidential personal counselling) from our in-house employee assistance programme, guidance on stress management, health checks, occupational health and help with dealing finance worries (as money problems are a well established cause of anxiety and distress, which can adversely affect employees' performance)."
Mental health problems account for the second biggest cause of sickness absence at work and are estimated to costs businesses £26bn a year.
Employers can pledge their support for Taking care of business by signing up to the campaign while employees can sign up to a weekly bulletin on how to improve their working day.
Article copyright YourDoc Medical Ltd 2010. All rights reserved.
