Mental Health & Statistics – Issues With Large Datasets
Released On 22nd Apr 2022
Mental health is often a difficult subject to talk about; there is an ongoing stigma associated with it, and it can feel difficult to get the true measure of what's going on in the area, for a variety of reasons.
As business owners and individuals, understanding mental health and how it impacts on your work and colleagues is vital to your ongoing success. Mental health facts and data are just one part of a complicated and diverse world - and learning how to approach data like this can be incredibly helpful from a business point of view.
In collaboration with Amanda Whitlock from Total Wellbeing Matters, this blog aims to discuss some of the challenges in this area and suggest some takeaway points that you can apply to other complex datasets for your business.
Impact on the Workplace
Before we explore the reasons why employers should implement workplace practices that improve the mental health of their staff, we firstly need to think about what we are talking about when we talk about mental health.
When we talk about mental health it is important to recognise that we are not talking about mental illness. Mental health is part of our overall health – you cannot separate mental health from physical health.
We also need to appreciate that having a bad day does not mean you are mentally ill. It is normal to sometimes feel sad or angry or low or anxious. These emotions make us human. It only becomes mental illness if:
- The feelings are more severe than normal
- You have been feeling like this for a while
- It is severely affecting the quality of your everyday life.
The World Health Organisation defines mental health as:
“Mental health is defined as a state of wellbeing in which every individual realises his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community” (World Health Organisation, 2014).
The quality of our mental health is shown by:
How we feel, think and behave
How resilient we are
How we feel about ourselves and our life
How we see ourselves and our future
How we deal with adverse events that happen in our life
Our level of self- esteem and confidence
How we cope with stress
Mental health Issues are common
Approximately 1 in 4 people in the UK will experience a mental illness each year. In 2016, 15.8 million UK workdays were lost due to mental illness.
Mental illness costs UK businesses around £35 billion every year, this equates to £10.6 billion lost to sickness absence, £21.2 billion in reduced productivity, and £3.1 billion in substituting staff members who vacate their roles due to mental illness.
In 2018 there were 6,154 suicides in Great Britain.
About 1 in every 200 adults experience a psychotic disorder, like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, in any one year.
Most people say they would not want anyone to know they have a mental health illness.
There is no single cause for mental health issues, and we all react differently to stress and difficult life events. The factors that impact our mental health and wellbeing are often defined as either a risk factor or a protective factor. Risk factors are those aspects of our lives that have a negative effect on our mental health while protective factors strengthen our resilience and help us improve our ability to cope with adverse circumstances.
As an employer you have a legal duty of care to ensure that employees are provided with a safe working environment and must take reasonable care to prevent personal injury (including mental or physical harm) that may arise in the workplace.
However, not only is investing in mental health morally and legally the right thing to do it is also financially a smart thing to do.
“Poor Mental health costs UK employers up to £45 billion each year. But for every £1 spent by employers on mental health interventions, they get back £5 in reduced absence, presenteeism, and staff turnover.” Deloitte, 2020
By implementing policies and procedures that support employee wellbeing you will cut absenteeism, improve staff morale, increase productivity and boost the motivation and commitment of your staff. In a recent survey it was found that.
“Employees favour a workplace that cares for their wellbeing and demonstrates support for wellbeing through a healthy work/life balance and strong diversity policies”
World Federation for Mental Health, 2017: Mental Health in the Workplace Independent research and evaluation has also shown that implementing mental health support in the workplace such as investing in Mental Health First Aid courses:
- Raises awareness of mental illnesses
- Encourages early intervention to aid recovery,
- increases confidence in dealing with mental illnesses
- Reduces stigma
In addition, research suggests that improving UK workplace mental health management could reduce employers’ losses attributed to mental illness by 30%, collectively. Evidence also shows that people who achieve good standards of well-being at work are likely to be more creative, more loyal, more productive, and provide better customer satisfaction than individuals with poor standards of well-being at work. NEF, 2014.
Training your staff in Mental health awareness or as Mental health First Aiders is a step towards equipping your teams to be able to talk about their mental health and for issues to be dealt with before they reach crisis level. For more information contact info@totalwellbeingmatters.com or visit www.totalwellbeingmatters.com.
The Facts & Interpreting Them
Suicide is a devastating and often misunderstood part of mental health, with highly quoted facts and figures.
A 2014 study from the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that almost 800,000 people die from suicide each year. Having better understanding of this fact could help raise understanding of how to reduce this number and prevent more deaths from occurring.
