More than one million Australians experience depression each year, with depression currently the leading cause of non-fatal disability. Despite this, depression is not always well managed by organisations and stigma and a lack of awareness can be barriers to seeking help. Did you know that each year undiagnosed depression in the workplace costs $4.3 billion in lost productivity and this excludes work cover / insurance claims, part-time or casual employees, retrenchment, recruitment and training. Workplace stress is a significant risk factor for developing depression
On average, every full-time employee with untreated depression costs an organisation $9,665 per year. In addition to absenteeism, depression accounts for more than 12 million days of reduced productivity each year. Around 50 per cent of people with depression don't get help for it but research shows that implementation of early diagnosis and intervention programs can result in a five-fold return on investment as a result of increased employee productivity. Increased awareness about depression and understanding the relationship between mental health and the workplace is more important than ever. The momentum in Australia to address these issues is growing.
Beyond Blue recently reported key results of a training needs analysis conducted in order to identify the learning needs of organisational leaders in relation to managing mental health, particularly depression, in the workplace. Their respondents were Managers/Leaders, Learning and Development and Human Resource Professionals from a variety of industries within public, private and not-for-profit sectors. Experience with depression in the workplace was common amongst their respondents, with 68 percent reporting that they had worked with, or managed, someone who was experiencing depression. Some respondents indicated the situation was related to relationship problems, with the major workplace issue being work performance. Only 14 percent of the Managers/Leaders reported participating in specific training related to managing mental health in the workplace. They reported that the most useful part of this training was information about identifying mental illnesses, information about services and resources and workplace strategies for responding to mental illness at work.What is clear from this information is that the following is now essential for businesses:-
- Leaders must promote and support good mental health in the workplace, have preventative strategies in place and develop policies and procedures around how to address mental health issues with their staff
- There must be an understanding of the impact of working conditions on mental health
- They must be able to identify signs and symptoms of mental health problems and
- Have the training / knowledge to be able manage workplace mental health problems and have effective treatment approaches to common mental health problems
Comments
Post has no comments.