Mental health is defined as a feeling of well-being, an emotional and spiritual state that allows a person to enjoy the fullness of life, to survive pain and sadness. Good mental health is when people can realize their abilities, overcome stress, work and contribute to community life, but it is necessary to emphasize that this does not mean the absence of mental health difficulties. Companies or organizations that pay sufficient attention to the mental health of employees contribute to the ability of employees, as it is strongly related to the mental health of an individual.
An open and supportive work culture fosters trust and collaboration – when mental health is a common, non-reactive topic of conversation, employees feel more connected to each other and more willing to help.
Promoting awareness of mental health at work
On the occasion of World Mental Health Day, the Institute of Hygiene’s Mental Health Center invites you to pay attention to yourself and your colleagues – do you always notice a change in the mood of a colleague, do you manage to ask a colleague about the difficulties they are experiencing and hear them?
Just 10 minutes a day can significantly contribute to the creation of a company or organization’s microclimate, encourage employee cooperation and work efficiency, increase their loyalty to the company, and thus contribute to the common goal and distribution of responsibilities.
The Mental Health Center of the Institute of Hygiene, encouraging attention to mental health, invited the director of the institution, Šarūnas Alasauskas, and the staff coordinator, Kristina Bubelevičienė, to a meeting with the team, during which there was free discussion and playing with questions from cards in a non-binding environment.
According to Š. Alasauskas, head of the Institute of Hygiene, all activities aimed at establishing a relationship between team members, especially those who do not work face-to-face all the time, greatly improve the general atmosphere in the company and create a sense of togetherness. “I wouldn’t say it’s easy to start a conversation with employees about how we feel,” he says. “We usually talk about work, and it’s not always easy to switch to informal communication.
However, after chatting with the center’s colleagues, I returned to the office in a high mood – any events, meetings, conversations or other activities that are not intended to discuss work, but to strengthen the community, help to feel the pulse of the organization, evaluate or rediscover the people working together and, I believe, act as an excellent preventive measure to respond appropriately by distributing work, responsibilities, forming a team, promoting work efficiency and helping employees feel good at work. Sometimes a targeted question asked at the right time helps to avoid more serious problems.”
Taking care of mental health must cover all areas of the company or organization – sometimes managers, who care about the well-being of their subordinates, undeservedly forget themselves.
Jonas Liugaila, partner of design and research agency The Critical, also emphasizes this fact: “It’s quite ironic, but the higher a person climbs the career ladder, the more he cares about the well-being of a larger group of people, the less someone cares about his own mental health. Adding to the scale of irony is the fact that this person’s mental health is critically important to him, but no less important to the well-being of the entire organization, it affects team dynamics, decision-making, and the effectiveness of the organization’s work.”
Speaking about the agency’s activities aimed at strengthening mutual communication and promoting openness, J. Liugaila notes that “quite often after completed projects, we have reflections in which we analyze the process that took place and its successful and improvement areas, and we identify these areas by taking feedback from each team member who participated in the project emotions at a specific stage of the project. This enables us to talk about not only the challenge itself, but makes it obvious that our emotions are determined by specific events. The process connects closely with people as emotional beings.”
Challenges in mental health
According to the WHO, the mental health of the population has deteriorated worldwide since the COVID-19 pandemic. in 2023 in June A Eurobarometer survey showed that almost 1 in 2 (46%) of EU residents had emotional or psychosocial problems, such as depression or anxiety, in the last 12 months. Data shows that around 12 billion lives are lost worldwide each year due to depression and anxiety disorders alone. working days. Lost productivity and/or worker productivity costs jobs and the economy about $1 trillion annually.
Although the numbers are obvious, talking about mental health and its difficulties in the workplace is still avoided. Do we always have the courage to talk about how we feel at work and do we always respond appropriately when someone shares that they are dealing with mental health difficulties? in 2022 According to the survey of public attitudes conducted by the Diversity Development Group, 50.7 percent respondents would not want to live in the neighborhood next to persons with mental disabilities (65% in 2023), 42.2% residents would not want to rent housing to them, 43.3 percent. would not like to work in one workplace (61% in 2023).
Thus, personal contact with people with mental difficulties is characterized by stigmatizing attitudes, and social distance only grows. It is often thought that the topic of mental health should be left behind closed doors at home. That is why it is still considered not acceptable to talk about how you feel at work or what prevents you from feeling well at work, and sharing mental health experiences and experiences in the workplace is not appropriate. Could it be that physical ailments are shared more openly by employees than mental health difficulties?
However, the specialists of the Institute of Hygiene emphasize that the employer can contribute to strengthening the mental health of employees in various ways that help create a supportive, open and healthy work environment. These methods do not necessarily require large financial resources – for example, the British renewable energy company Octopus Energy offers its employees access to a special mobile app for meditation, as well as financial advice services and access to various family wellbeing initiatives.
Employees are encouraged to use flexible work schedules to ensure a healthy balance between work and rest. Company representatives notice that employees participating in wellness programs achieve greater work efficiency and job satisfaction. A better balance between work and rest and the availability of financial and psychological support have been found to reduce employee burnout and improve the overall work culture.
Find out more about how businesses or organizations can contribute to mental health by devoting at least 10 minutes a day to an open conversation or activity about how we feel in life and at work. here.
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