Mental health is working for our good.

A growing need in the workplace

Pop singer, Ariana Grande has always been vocal about her journey with anxiety. One of my favorite quotes from her is, "Don't ever doubt yourselves or waste a second of your life. It's too short and you're too special." The subject of the psychological state has been increasing in importance lately. More companies are starting to push for the mental well-being of their employees, and I do support this. In my opinion, the school system and many households today, do not teach about how to handle negative situations in life and how to control emotions. This is important as mental illnesses tend to come from a scarcity of confidence to handle the bad times of life. I am not saying that it is a company's responsibility to be a therapist for employees, but a company can play a role in encouraging positive thinking and the use of psychological state resources.

Source: Imgflip.com

Effects of mental illness on the workplace

Let us take a glance at the number of ways that mental disease can affect the workplace. Mental disease can lead to gossip and ignoring co-workers because of stigma. Companies can encourage prevention and early intervention to help prevent problems like these. Also, giving attention to the psychological state can boost productivity and reduce costs and risks to the business (Hougan, 2019).

Work takes up a big portion of a person's life, however, experiences and situations outside of the workplace can affect professional performance. The person can be distracted because of things happening in his/her personal life. For example, in the 2010s, The Me Too Movement raised awareness about women handling sexual assault. Another example is that American Rapper, Logic, wrote a song about suicide prevention for the public (Li, 2019).

What can be done

Several tangible approaches can be used to support the psychological state in the workplace. Firstly, companies can provide access and education from other organizations such as the American Psychiatric Association and the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Second, work-life balance is important to help prevent burnout and stress (Kholl, 2018). Thirdly, training can be provided to managers to monitor employee engagement and deal fairly with each person. Fourth, psychological state policies can be used to influence behaviors in the workplace (Kholl, 2018).

Several psychological state campaigns in the world have proven to form a difference. One of those campaigns that I would like to highlight is the See Me campaign in Scotland. It was a national program to finish psychological state stigma and discrimination in the workplace. A national survey done showed that most workers feared to disclose mental disease because of the possibility of being fired or being omitted for a promotion (Keane, 2019). The campaign encouraged conversation in the workplace to ask co-workers, "Are you okay?" Take a look below at one of the videos that were made for the campaign.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JkmynvkXJo

After reading this article, I ask that you learn more about how to interact with persons that have mental illnesses and encourage conversations about mental health in the workplace.

References

Hougan, Sean. (2019, July 24). 5 Reasons companies should promote mental health at work.

StarlingMinds. https://www.starlingminds.com/resources/blogs/5-reasons-companies-should-promote-mental-health-at-work/.

Keane, Lorna. (2019, August 29). 7 Mental health campaigns that made a difference.

GlobalWebIndex. https://blog.globalwebindex.com/marketing/mental-health/

Kholl, Alan. (2018, November 27). How to create a workplace that supports

mental health. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/alankohll/2018/11/27/how-to-create-a-workplace-that-supports-mental-health/#2dd69eecdda7.

Li, Sara. (2019, December 23). 10 Powerful mental health moments of the 2010s. CrisisTextLine. https://www.crisistextline.org/blog/10-mental-health-moments-from-the- 2010s.