Mind estimate that there are just under two million people on waiting lists for NHS mental health services. Statistics show that 1 in 4 adults experience mental illnesses, as well as 1 in 10 children. In 2022/23 there were an estimated 875,000 workers suffering from work-related stress, depression or anxiety.
There’s an abundance of evidence highlighting not only the huge increases in mental health problems today, but also the lack of support available. It’s been inevitable that this has then taken a huge toll on the UK’s workforce, as 17.1 million days are lost due to mental health. Now more than ever, organisations need to invest in occupational health and wellbeing, so that there’s support available for workers. Having easy access to mental health and wellbeing support means that employees can seek help early on when they’re dealing with issues like stress or anxiety and then hopefully it won’t develop into a long-term sickness issue.
Things like counselling, employee assistance programmes, wellbeing schemes and learning, can help manage stress, anxiety and depression; as the statistics show, workplaces are actually a big cause for people feeling these ways and so having support to combat that would be effective. It’ll make them feel better and they’ll be able to cope or manage their workloads and stress levels when they’re at work.
Alternatively, if an employee has been off work with sickness for mental health reasons, then having occupational health at work can enable a smooth return to work and help employees return to work more quickly as the support will be there. With no support, they could be off sick again in a short amount of time as there’s been no true resolution to their problems.
Making sure that employees have support they need, whether it be preventative or reactive, will mean that both the employees and the organisation can thrive. You can’t have a healthy, successful business without a healthy workforce.