28 Aug, 2019
In recent years awareness of mental health has increased and whilst we’re talking more, we still have a long way to go as the stigma surrounding mental health still exists.
Mental health relates to how we think, feel and behave. The most common mental health problems are anxiety and depression and whilst these are often caused by a difficult life event, they can also be caused by work related issues. Whether work is the cause or not, having a fulfilling job can improve your mental health and general wellbeing.
The facts & figures
The impact of mental health at work
How do the management standards address wellbeing?
When you think of the ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety management system, you would be forgiven for automatically thinking about the physical aspects such as tripping hazards and manual handling.
Whilst wellbeing is not a requirement of ISO 45001 it does enable businesses the opportunity to incorporate employee wellbeing in to their management system.
ISO 45001 helps you to identify the needs, expectations and hazards to your team. At this point, you can identify the need for mental health support which can also be included within your Hazard Assessment. Consider whether you work in a stressful or challenging environment. How does this affect your team and how can you help? From here, you can then set yourself objectives and a plan of how you can achieve this, allowing you the opportunity to put the controls in place to eliminate or reduce the impact of these hazards on mental health.
You may also be surprised to learn that the ISO 9001 Quality Management System also takes employee wellbeing in to consideration. This management standard looks at the social, psychological and physical factors relating to the working environment, allowing you the opportunity to identify any needs to employee wellbeing.
The benefits of addressing wellbeing
What can you do?
The Thriving at Work report, recommends the following:
For more information and resources, visit the Mental Health at Work website.
References:
https://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/mental-health.htm
https://www.acas.org.uk/mentalhealth
https://www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/adults/
https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/publications/how-support-mental-health-work
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