We need to open up about mental health in the workplace | Sue Baker

Looking after the wellbeing of employees benefits everyone – no matter your role, seniority, and whether you have a mental health problem, or not.

Working with employers over the past six years means we have a good indication of what works to ensure a mentally healthy workplace. Those elements are incorporated into the Time to Change employer pledge, which gives organisations the opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to opening up the conversation about mental health. More than 500 organisations have made that commitment.

There are multiple things employers can do to create a more open working environment. Senior leaders have a pivotal role to play in leading by example – being open about their own mental health experiences sends the strong message that this isn’t a sign of weakness and doesn’t limit your ambition or aspiration. Employees at all levels talking honestly and openly about their experiences has contributed hugely to a cultural shift in how we think about the topic.

When employees feel their work is meaningful and they are valued and supported, they tend to have higher wellbeing levels. We often talk about a three-pronged approach that employers can adopt: promoting wellbeing for all staff; tackling the causes of work-related mental health problems; and supporting staff who are experiencing mental health problems.

We’ve made a conscious effort in recent years to target male-dominated workplaces, such as construction. Our research shows that men still don’t consider mental health relevant to them. Men try to be self-sufficient, keeping problems to themselves. But mental health problems don’t discriminate – they can affect anyone.

Many of the biggest UK construction firms have signed our pledge, and they tell us that for them it has been crucial to have people “on the ground” in the form of employee champions who challenge workplace stigma, normalise conversations about mental health and encourage those who need help to feel comfortable asking for it.

With the right support from those around them, people with mental health problems can recover and have equal opportunities in all areas of life – including work.

Sue Baker is director of Time to Change, the anti-stigma Movement run by charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness.

We need to open up about mental health in the workplace | Sue Baker

Tips on staying healthy in the workplace – live chat

In recent years the perils of our increasingly sedentary lifestyles have been widely accepted – but the link between sitting and health problems was first made in 1949. Scientist Jerry Morris discovered London bus drivers were twice as likely to suffer heart attacks than bus conductors who were on their feet all day. In the following decades, mounting evidence has shown that office work poses a threat to public health, increasing the risk of heart disease, obesity and early death. Meanwhile long hours spent staring at computer screens can cause eye strain, headaches and migraines.

Physical inactivity costs the global economy $ 67.5bn (£54.3bn) per year, comprising $ 58.8bn in healthcare and $ 13.7bn in lost productivity, according to a major report published in the Lancet in July. The study found that people need at least an hour of physical activity a day to counter the ill effects of every eight hours spent sitting.

With work becoming increasingly desk-bound – and people spending more hours chained to their desks – it can be hard to find the time to integrate physical activity into the working day. Lead author of the Lancet report Prof Ulf Ekelund acknowledges that taking breaks during the working day is not easy for some people. “It’s OK doing some brisk walking, maybe in the morning, during lunchtime, after dinner in the evening. You can split it up over the day, but you need to do at least one hour,” he says.

Ahead of Self Care Week – a UK awareness event promoting personal health management – our Q&A will explore how to stay healthy at work. If you have a sedentary job and are concerned about spending long hours glued to a screen, then join us on Wednesday 9 November from 1–2.30pm GMT for a live chat with a panel of experts. We’ll be discussing:

• How to keep tabs on your health in the workplace
  


• Office-based exercises to keep you moving throughout the day
  


• Methods for taking breaks even when you are extremely busy

The Q&A takes place in the comments section below this article. Taking part is easier than ever: create a free Guardian account or log in using your Twitter or Facebook profile to comment. Alternatively, you can tweet us @GuardianCareers or email your questions to sarah.shearman@theguardian.com who can post them for you.

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Tips on staying healthy in the workplace – live chat

What"s your experience of mental health in the workplace? – share your stories

A new study suggests more than three quarters of workers aged 16 to 64 have experienced symptoms of poor mental health, and nearly two thirds of those with mental health problems believe work was a contributing factor.

Many of the 20,000 employees surveyed by the charity Business in the Community employees found their employers lacked awareness, training and responsiveness to mental health issues. More than half said their employers took no action when they disclosed their symptoms of poor mental health.

We’d like to hear from you about your experiences of mental health in the workplace. Do you feel able to discuss mental health in your workplace? Have you had a positive or negative experience when you have discussed your mental health? Are you an employer who has experience of building a workplace culture that supports good mental health?

You can share your views by filling in the form below – completely anonymously if you would prefer. We’ll be putting together an article highlighting your views to coincide with World Mental Health Day on Monday 10 October 2016.

What"s your experience of mental health in the workplace? – share your stories

Is it finally safe to be out as HIV positive in the workplace?

It was November seven, 1991, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the home. Magic Johnson had hastily assembled a press conference, surprising the world with the information that he was HIV optimistic and would be retiring correct away. Whilst he produced an exalted return to basketball the following yr – sharing in an Olympic Gold – his fellow players have been fearful about contracting AIDS and soon forced him out of the game.

That was early days for HIV awareness, of course. Nowadays, for National HIV Testing Day, I noticed that the campaign – which consists of totally free HIV testing at Walgreens in much more than 140 cities – asks us to proudly proclaim, “I Acquired Tested,” in the very same method of “I Voted”.

Why not? Following all, the Centers for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) factors out that although 1.1 million Americans are living with HIV, 1 in six is unaware they have the virus. Not only does testing save lives, thanks to early diagnosis, but those who are HIV optimistic and are in treatment method have been shown to decrease the danger of spreading the virus to other folks.

But a lot of stigma about HIV even now persists. Just final month, Donald Sterling, the embattled owner of the LA Clippers, implied – in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper – that Johnson isn’t a great illustration for youngsters due to the fact of the sexual behavior that led to HIV.

Sterling may possibly nicely be an excessive case. But, 23 many years right after Magic Johnson’s press conference, is it ultimately safe to be out as HIV good in the workplace? Or is getting HIV optimistic one of the final workplace taboos?

The answer is nuanced. Thanks to the Americans With Disabilities Act, for most firms with 15 or more personnel, it is against the law to inquire about an employee’s HIV standing – and illegal to terminate them primarily based on their perceived or actual standing. But that does not indicate HIV good staff encounter no discrimination at operate.

Daniel, who has asked us to withhold his last name for privacy, is a healthcare professional who is openly HIV optimistic at function. “I consider that there’s practically nothing incorrect with wearing that sticker,” he said. “The awareness wants to be there. [But] as far as sharing that at function, you could be shunned by co-staff, passed in excess of for a promotion.”

Jennifer Kates, director of worldwide wellness and HIV policy for the Kaiser Household Foundation, a co-founder of Better Than AIDS, agrees that HIV stigma is nonetheless there. “It’s really difficult to weigh: get examined, be noticeable as an HIV positive person and encounter the prospect of discrimination,” she explained. “It’s a tension that nonetheless exists. But the public overall health relevance of being aware of your status and acquiring linked to companies you may need to have is critical.”

What are companies carrying out to adjust the stigma?

Levi Strauss, for one particular, looks to have taken this concern critically. It has a international policy to guarantee nondiscrimination and confidentiality of HIV status. In the US, the garment producer will take a tailored approach. In its retail stores, retailer managers get the lead in educating their personnel, and in distribution centers, the company partners with local NGOs to provide a single-hour education sessions. It has put with each other a video to introduce workers to the issues surrounding HIV.

The organization also provides HIV Connect, a counseling hotline, and has place procedures in area to investigate and respond to allegations of HIV/AIDS discrimination. All collectively, Levi’s initiatives have brought about enhancements in HIV/AIDS expertise and workplace discrimination (pdf), among other indicators, winning it a Enterprise Action on Wellness award from GBC Wellness last 12 months.

But authorities say a lot of other organizations nevertheless have a long way to go.

Rose Saxe, senior employees attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT &amp AIDS Project, has the following advice for managers right after HIV Testing Day: “No assumptions must be produced about anyone’s HIV standing just due to the fact they have taken an HIV check. HR departments and managers should demonstrate leadership by making clear that speculation about anyone’s health-related historical past, or disparaging remarks against individuals living with HIV, or LGBT men and women, are inappropriate.”

Even though Saxe urges testing, she’s cautious to stage out that it alone won’t de-stigmatize HIV. “Efforts to broaden testing will only make a genuine big difference if they are combined with a continued push for meaningful HIV training,” she mentioned.

In other words, addressing HIV discrimination explicitly in business policy and including HIV education to your worker training can go a extended way in direction of de-stigmatizing HIV in the workplace. What can you – and your firm – do to drive this forward? Tell us what your organization is carrying out – or not doing – in the remarks under.

Jerry Weinstein has contributed to a wide variety of publications like Triple Pundit, the Christian Science Keep track of and the Boston Company Journal. He is an associate producer of the forthcoming documentary, Examined, and an adviser to the Adaptive Layout Association

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Is it finally safe to be out as HIV positive in the workplace?

Mental overall health: the final workplace taboo

Mental health is typically off limits in terms of workplace discussion, but a culture of silence causes discrimination. Photograph: Gersende Rambourg/AFP/Getty Pictures

Mental health is a single of the greatest threats to the wellbeing of enterprise and society. Employees across the United kingdom are operating harder and are underneath more stress than ever just before. However there stays a culture of silence close to psychological wellness at work and companies are reluctant to report publicly on the proactive methods that are becoming taken to foster mental wellbeing. Employers and staff are unwilling to speak about tension, anxiety and depression openly, fearful of any association with weakness and failure.

1 in four grownups in the Uk will experience a mental wellness problem in any given 12 months, with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Growth (OECD) estimating the price of psychological wellness to the United kingdom economic climate at £70bn per 12 months, equating to four.five% of GDP. Mental ill health at operate is believed to cost Uk employers £26bn each and every 12 months – on average £1,035 per employee.

These stark statistics are set out in a report, Psychological Wellness: We’re Prepared To Speak, which launched this week for the duration of Accountable Enterprise Week. The report plainly sets out the evidence that the current culture of silence about psychological health is stifling United kingdom enterprise productivity and competitiveness.

It finds that 15.2m days of sickness absence across the United kingdom in 2013 have been triggered by daily problems this kind of as anxiety, nervousness or depression – a dramatic enhance from 11.8m days in 2010. Two fifths of organisations saw an increase in psychological overall health troubles last yr, compared with only a single fifth in 2009. But, despite 1 in six staff at present going through mental health issues, the report finds that businesses are not putting in place ideas to make certain the mental wellbeing of their workers.

These statistics clearly represent a culture of silence – at an individual and organisational degree – which final results in struggling, inequality and discrimination. Rare is the individual or business leader that speaks out in public about their psychological health concerns. Mental wellness truly is the final workplace taboo. Numerous celebrities, sports folks and even MPs have spoken about psychological overall health, but that has not truly happened with company leaders.

Just as worrying as the fast-growing numbers of folks affected by mental sick well being is that fewer than half of people that are impacted come to feel confident to disclose their issue, that means problems grow to be more extreme.

By not taking easy measures to talk about psychological wellbeing, concerns that could otherwise be resolved just can soon build into ill wellness, absence and disengagement. Organisations that ignore the want for preventative action on mental health danger long-term troubles, which includes reduced competitiveness, decrease productivity and fewer prospects for sustainable growth. Conversely, the rewards for organizations that engage with this problem are large. We want to see an urgency utilized by organization leaders to help carry better momentum to ending stigma and enhancing the capacity for optimistic psychological wellbeing.

This report is a get in touch with to action for companies to fully rethink their approach to mental wellbeing in the workplace. Simply put, business cannot ignore the statistics or the benefits of a rethink as the report also outlines the benefits for businesses that do proactively engage with psychological wellbeing: improved worker determination, greater employees retention charges and improved competitiveness.

There are progressive organizations out there that have currently taken steps to modify cultures and processes about mental sick wellness and facilitate early intervention, rather than tackle difficulties as they arise. The report outlines numerous examples of businesses – Deloitte, Procter &amp Gamble, National Grid and Mars Chocolate Uk – that can show tangible positive aspects of supplying strategic mental well being help for their personnel.

I have wonderful deal of hope that attitudes are modifying. Those who have driven the publication of this report are from business and acting on behalf of enterprise – they are the founders of a new Psychological Well being Champions Group.

This group supplies, for the initial time, clear leadership from organization, for enterprise, on psychological wellbeing. Our objective is to support psychological well being turn out to be a strategic boardroom problem, and to motivate more employers to get preventative and supportive action on employee psychological well being as they would do on physical overall health.

This collaboration and openness could suggest we’re at the tipping level in terms of tackling this culture of silence.

Louise Aston is director of Business in the Community’s Workwell campaign. She spoke at an event yesterday to launch a new Psychological Wellness Champions Group and the Psychological Health: We’re Prepared To Talk report at Accountable Company Week

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Mental overall health: the final workplace taboo

Companies braced for dementia care crisis to hit workplace

Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, warned last year that Britain is dealing with “substantial economic loss” if organizations do not have a radical rethink of functioning practices.

A poll of 1,000 present or current carers located that far more than half (53 per cent) believed their caring responsibilities had currently had a adverse affect on their operate trough aspects such as tiredness, anxiety or tension and so on. Meanwhile far more than a quarter of people at the moment caring dread that it was probably to influence their capacity to operate in the potential.

Heléna Herklots, chief executive of Carers Uk, stated: “The employers and carers we function with are telling us the identical story as the statistics – that dementia and the effect on personnel of caring is a crucial issue for workforce retention, recruitment and resilience. “Very frequently the require to care for an elderly mother or father comes at peak occupation age.

“Without the appropriate assistance, the challenges of combining this kind of caring with perform (frequently also with other loved ones responsibilities) can speedily grow to be also challenging to deal with. Workers with useful encounter and abilities will then either depart their jobs or struggle to cope in the workplace.

“The experiences from carers and employers captured in this investigation present that the recent support wants of folks caring for loved ones with dementia are not being met, especially by care and support providers.”

She added: “This lack of support is compounded by a perceived stigma about dementia, often reported by carers, which explains why it stays such a hidden concern in so several workplaces.”

Companies braced for dementia care crisis to hit workplace

Grocery chief lobbied Fiona Nash workplace hrs prior to healthier meals site eliminated

The chief executive of the Australian Food and Grocery Council, Gary Dawson, referred to as the workplace of the assistant well being minister, Fiona Nash, to lobby against the healthier meals rating site hrs before it was taken down.

The pulling of the web site eventually led to the resignation of Nash’s chief-of-employees, Alastair Furnival, in excess of claims he had a conflict of interest due to the fact of his links to the junk meals market.

Dawson opposed the website, which rated meals based on nutrition, estimating it could expense the food market $ 200m.

He has now revealed he rang Nash’s office on the day the internet site went live.

“We pointed out that we felt it was premature and that more work wants to be carried out just before the method is launched and we believe it was a wise choice,” he told ABC seven.thirty.

“They did leap the gun, really frankly, in placing the internet site up.”

Nash has maintained the internet site was pulled simply because it was place up prematurely. In Senate estimates she argued Furnival resigned due to the fact of media strain, not because of his connections to the junk meals business.

Michael Moore, from the Public Wellness Association of Australia, assisted place the web site together and rejects claims it was launched prematurely.

“Of course the site was prepared to go up. When I looked at it, it was functioning brilliantly,” he said.

Nash was questioned in Senate estimates this week about Furnival’s directorship and co-ownership of Strategic Problems Management (Sim) which owns Australian Public Affairs (APA), a lobbyist with businesses that represent Kraft, Cadbury, Pepsi, Coca-Cola and Schweppes.

Nash said Furnival had offered an undertaking in writing to handle any true or perceived conflicts of interest and was in the procedure of divesting himself of Sim.

The special minister of state, Michael Ronaldson, refused to say regardless of whether he sent a letter of permission for Furnival to start off perform as a ministerial workers member while nonetheless holding a directorship of Sim.

“I’m happy to inform you this, it was typical understanding where Mr Furnival had previously worked, it was non-secret, it wasn’t hidden by anybody, it would have been clearly clear to the Australian Labor party as it was to the government staffing committee, they had been matters the government staffing committee mentioned which have been put back to minister Nash,” he explained at Senate estimates earlier in the week.

Grocery chief lobbied Fiona Nash workplace hrs prior to healthier meals site eliminated

Let mothers breastfeed their babies in workplace meetings, says Dame Sally Davies

Mothers need to be allowed to breastfeed their children at work and even in office meetings, the country’s chief healthcare officer Professor Sally Davies has explained.

Professor Davies mentioned ladies ought to be allowed to feed their babies in the workplace as component of daily lifestyle.

Dame Sally, who earns far more than £225,000 a year as the Government’s prime healthcare advisor, described the time that she shocked male colleagues when she attempted to breastfeed her daughter in the course of a meeting, the Mail reported.

Speaking of the want to make breastfeeding far more ‘acceptable’, she said: ‘I was there in this giant shirt with a child hiding below it and a comment was produced and my response was quite sharp.

Addressing an occasion organised by the Wellbeing of Women charity in London yesterday, Dame Sally, 64, mentioned that one particular way of boosting women’s prospective customers in the workplace would be encouraging them to breastfeed at operate.

Prof Davies claimed that women physicians have been underestimated and poorly paid as properly as far significantly less most likely to be in positions of energy.

She used her speech to try and motivate the NHS to do more to ensure females can ‘make it up the ladder’.

Let mothers breastfeed their babies in workplace meetings, says Dame Sally Davies