It is good to talk

Over recent weeks, I have been reading numerous articles in the media connected with mental health. For those of you who may have missed these reports, I would like to circle this information to hopefully further raise the spot light on mental health. This is a very real problem existing in our society and more needs to be done to help resolve this issue.

Here at Westray Recruitment Consultants, I apply my efforts to source Technical and Engineering professionals into work. The reality of the marketplace I serve is that it is a male dominated industry, often with a reputation that due to male bravado, major issues such as mental health regularly go undiscussed. For the record, mental health is not sexist, it impacts and destroys lives, irrespective of gender.

Such is the realisation of this issue, Sky News reports that NHS and Civil Service staff will be offered more mental health support, as a report reveals that 300,000 people with long-term mental health problems lose their jobs every year.

The Stevenson-Farmer 'Thriving at Work' review - commissioned by the Prime Minister in January - says poor mental health costs employers up to £42bn a year with an annual cost to the UK economy of £99bn.

The issue of mental health has also made its way into parliament, with Theresa May stating: "It is only by making this an everyday concern for everyone that we change the way we see mental illness so that striving to improve your mental health - whether at work or at home - is seen as just as positive as improving our physical wellbeing."

Addressing mental health is therefore crucial in the workplace as employers are being encouraged to protect their employees from these issues.

The independent review written by Lord Dennis Stevenson and Paul Farmer, Chief Executive of Mind and Chair of the NHS Mental Health Taskforce, reports that public sector and large employers need to:

• Produce, implement and communicate a mental health at work plan
• Develop mental health awareness among employees
• Encourage open conversations about mental health and the support available when employees are struggling
• Provide employees with good working conditions and ensure they have a healthy work life balance and opportunities for development
• Promote effective people management through line managers and supervisors
• Monitor employee mental health and wellbeing

With mental health issues predicted to rise over the next few years, I would encourage all businesses, irrespective of size, to start implementing plans to protect their staff within the workplace. It is my prediction that over the short term, we will see new legislation and initiatives centred around mental health becoming more prevalent in the workplace.

To enable this to happen and for the rewards of these plans to be reaped in order to improve well-being, attitudes towards mental health must continue to change for the positive.

According to Mind, approximately 1 in 4 people in the UK will experience a mental health problem each year. This to me, highlights the scale of the problem we all face. It is therefore important to make every effort to create an open culture whereby issues that ultimately affect us all, can be discussed.

Remember, it is good to talk.