Dr Mustafa Ali
World Mental Health Day is a global campaign initiated on 10th October 1992 by the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH), to address and create awareness globally about the critical issues related to mental health with the collaboration of all stakeholders.
Since 1994, this special day has been associated with a specific theme; this year’s theme is “It’s Time to Prioritize Mental Health in the Workplace.” This year’s Mental Health Day offers an excellent opportunity to redouble our efforts to promote awareness of mental health concerns and find solutions to the emotional challenges that develop at the workplace on a daily basis. It Is also a call to acknowledge the significance of mental health in the workplace.
In India, around 50% of the country’s adult population spends more time at work because it is a necessary means of livelihood. It also provides an important platform for engagement with friends, and colleagues to share their emotions, joys, and successes of everyday life besides their assigned work. However, working in an age where organizations rely more on artificial intelligence and technology has its own set of challenges and expectations. These challenges, including high work demands, rigid schedules, and the persistent dread of job instability, negatively impact physical health and, more importantly, mental well-being. Given the significant impact that stress, worry, anxiety, and burnout have on worker performance, job satisfaction, and an organization’s overall effectiveness and success, it is critical that mental health, particularly in the workplace, receive more attention than ever.
According to a systematic review and meta-analysis in 2017, common mental health disorders are more likely to arise in the workplace when role stress, bullying, high job demand, high job control, high effort-reward imbalance, low rational justice, and low social support are present. Every year, depression and anxiety disorders cause more than $1 trillion in lost productivity worldwide. Additionally, employees with mental health disorders face challenges related to higher rates of sick leave, reduction in productivity and performance, job stability and retention, permanent termination from their jobs, substance use, increased risk for suicide, and lower earnings, all of which increase the potential for discrimination, lower quality of life, and exacerbate their mental health conditions. Besides the poor work-life balance and ongoing mental issues, the stigma associated with mental health at workplaces poses a deteriorating impact on seeking professional help. As per the National Mental Health Survey (2015-2016), the overall prevalence of mental disorders was 13.7%, and the treatment gap ranged between 70- 92% including Alcohol use disorder (86.3%) and Nicotine use disorder (91.8%). Among other factors, the stigma attached to mental health is a significant contributing cause to this discrepancy in seeking treatment. Mental health at workplaces can be promoted through a collaborative approach of the government, employers, employees, medical professionals, and employees’ unions, by providing universal interventions such as regulating and promoting healthy working conditions, awareness programs on mental illness and well-being at workplaces, promotion of mental health, soft skill training, counseling services, accommodation, liberal leave policies, social and economic support, stress management, and periodic screening and assessment of work and work conditions and consultation liaison between departments. Organizations that strongly prioritize mental health have been proven to have lower absenteeism and employee engagement levels. Furthermore, to create a positive work environment, it’s critical to address and dispel a few common misconceptions about mental health at work, such as the notion that discussing mental health at work is inappropriate, that having mental health problems is a sign of weakness, that having mental health problems makes an employee bad, etc. It’s also imperative to mention that employees can also benefit from the National Tele Mental Health Programme of India, Tele Mental Health Assistance and Networking Across States (Tele MANAS), initiated by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India under the leadership of our honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. This service would provide full-fledged online mental health professional services by honoring patient-doctor confidentiality. The All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Jammu under the leadership of Prof (Dr.) Shakti Kumar Gupta, ED and CEO of AIIMS Jammu, is committed to providing evidence-based and advanced Mental Health care services and prioritizing mental health at AIIMS Jammu, which would ensure the rights, honor, and dignity of all our students and employees. Mental Health is not a luxury; it is a necessity, and on this Mental Health Day we should all commit to making it a priority on both personal and professional levels.
(The writer is Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, AIIMS Jammu)
