[ad_1]
I I would rather tell an employer that I have severe pain during a period or a terrible diarrhea than saying I have to take a day off for my sanity. Despite the days of mental health awareness, mindfulness at work clbades and anti-stigma posters, many of us still feel that our bosses are not willing to accept mental illness – and we may be right.
Andrew Berrie, employer program manager for the Time to Change campaign, said nine out of ten people with mental health issues report being stigmatized and discriminated against. More than half of them say they are most affected by stigma at work, which means that many do not think they can talk openly with their supervisor. Things get better, says Berrie – but stigma means that, like me, 95% of employees prefer to call for invented reasons rather than reveal the truth about their poor mental health.
Geoff McDonald is a co-founder of minds @ work, a network of professionals seeking to create psychologically healthy workplaces. "I think there's always a huge gap between what the top leaders of culture and openness think, and what we really feel on the front line, whether we can have those conversations or not. He tells a senior executive who entered a mindful clbadroom that his company was organizing, looked at the room and said, "So these are people who can not cope with my business." The organization had ticked a box, but had not changed the culture of intolerance that favors the judgment of those who struggle. McDonald notes that we are making progress, but that we are "always at the foot of Mount Everest climbing".
What we feel is not just symbolic, but fear, too, he says. "There have been a lot of campaigns, awareness, encouraging people to talk – but I think there's always that fear of not knowing what to do or say, even at the simplest level." He said that line managers often confess that they are afraid to say the wrong thing, telling him that if someone came to them saying that they were suffering from anxiety, they would not know how to manage it.
Dr. Beverley Flint, Clinical Psychologist at the Mental Health Foundation of Camden and Islington Mental Health Center, leads C & I Wellbeing, providing mental health training to managers and human resources staff. She says that many companies and organizations are blind to the reality of what their employees are experiencing.
When she meets employers who tell her that they "do not have a mental health problem" in their workplace, she says raising her eyebrows. "I tell them," But you, you do not know it. People in the workplace will have a diagnosis. I would love to see data on the retention of your staff. People are angry with me when I say that. "
Chris (his real name) works for a big company. Three years ago he had been stressed for five months while he could no longer perform simple tasks. He was impressed by the way human resources managed his situation – he felt heard and supported, and had the space and time he needed, with a gradual return to work. But since then, he has learned to choose who he is talking to about his state of mind.
"Sometimes I hide my story, and sometimes I say I'm exhausted. It depends on the signals that I have received from them, if they have opened the door with their attitude. "The organization says about its policy or its culture He explains, "Culture is generated by team members and their leaders, and if the leader does not tolerate mental health problems, you will have a culture where you will not talk about it and where they will be. Conducted in the underground, it is enough for a person close to you to be a threat and you never share anything.
When it was opened with older colleagues, the worst responses came from people who changed the subject. the best of those who said, "Thank you for revealing something with which it is not easy to speak."
In a sense, it's as simple as that. But it is also much more complex. We are constantly told that mental health is like physical health, it's like a broken leg. While this has been important to stress that mental illness can affect everyone, there is nothing to be ashamed of and not something that we can control, but that the mind and body must be taken seriously, it's finally a lie. A broken leg has an obvious and diagnosable cause. it is likely to have the same symptoms in everyone and to heal in a predictable way, and once that happens, it may never happen again. The mind does not work like this.
While mental health and physical health work in a very different way, employers have a legal responsibility to treat both types of illness in the same way, says Richard Martin, a former labor lawyer who is currently responsible for mental health. at Byrne Dean and author of This Too. Will go: worry in a professional world. "The Occupational Health and Safety Act, other legislation and case law require employers to create a safe work environment," he said. "On a construction site, it would mean making sure we have the right equipment and that we have the right training to use different machines. But the reality for many companies is that the most serious risks relate to mental health. "
Employers are required to ensure that the workplace is not subject to undue pressure or problems that may arise. There is also a positive obligation to accommodate people with disabilities and to make reasonable adjustments to the workplace, although what that means in the context of mental health is unclear, Martin said. "If my disability means I'm in a wheelchair, you understand that we need a ramp and wider lanes. But in the context of mental health, what does it mean? "It's not always a simple question."
According to Mr. Berrie, among the reasonable adjustments, employees could be allowed to leave work to make an appointment or work from home on occasion, if that proves useful. ; and temporarily rebadign tasks that they find stressful.
Chris, himself a victim of mental depression, can detect the warning signs: "I've noticed people whose hair and skin are getting more and more grizzled, saying the kind of things I was saying when I was overworked. I sat with them and listened to them, not because I have to fix them, but because I would have liked to be able to do it for me. "
The creation of this discussion space should not be restricted to people with lived experience, says Flint. "It has to be part of one-on-one meetings – people have to talk to people regularly. Not the arbitrariness, are you all right? Think about what they eat for dinner, but listen to the answer. Then, if they notice that someone looks tired all the time or their performance is getting worse, it's so much easier to say, "I'm a little worried about you."
In other words, managers must make sure to send their employees the message that it is safe to talk. Everyone benefits. "Science and evidence tell us that if people with depression can talk to their manager, they are less likely to be absent, and if they are absent, they will probably come back sooner than usual". they would not have done it. , "Flint says.
It can be difficult to know when to take time off for mental health issues. For some people, going to work is the way out of a day started with a sense of unhappiness and tightness in the chest, but for others, even with the same diagnosed condition, it will be different. Flint states, "People living with a chronic mental health problem must be recognized as experts in their own right."
When each case is likely to require a different response in the workplace, it should begin with an open conversation.
Chris says that being able to talk freely about your mental health has changed your life. "Where it was possible, it was a wonderful and liberating moment," he says. "The personal relationships I've had with people in these brief discussions are enormous. It normalizes everything, makes it manageable. This makes you feel that it is not an impossible thing to overcome. "
Source link
