An estimated 12 billion workdays are lost annually due to depression and anxiety, costing the global economy nearly USD one trillion. Not without reason, though, as just 35 per cent of the country members who are signatories to the International Labour Organization (ILO) Occupational Safety and Health Convention have reported having national programmes for work-related mental health promotion and prevention.
Against this backdrop, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the ILO have called upon the countries to take concrete action to address mental health concerns in the working population and have come out with two new publications "WHO Guidelines on mental health at work" and a derivative "WHO/ILO Policy Brief".
The WHO’s global guidelines on mental health at work recommend actions to tackle risks to mental health such as heavy workloads, negative behaviours and other factors that create distress at work.
For the first time WHO recommends manager training, to build their capacity to prevent stressful work environments and respond to workers in distress.
According to the WHO’s World mental health report, published in June 2022, of one billion people living with a mental disorder in 2019, 15 per cent of working-age adults experienced a mental disorder.
Work amplifies wider societal issues that negatively affect mental health, including discrimination and inequality. Bullying and psychological violence (also known as ‘mobbing’) are key complaints of workplace harassment that have a negative impact on mental health. Yet discussing or disclosing mental health remains a taboo in work settings globally.
The guidelines also recommend better ways to accommodate the needs of workers with mental health conditions, propose interventions that support their return to work and, for those with severe mental health conditions, provide interventions that facilitate entry into paid employment.
Importantly, the guidelines call for interventions aimed at the protection of health, humanitarian and emergency workers. “It’s time to focus on the detrimental effect work can have on our mental health,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
“The well-being of the individual is reason enough to act, but poor mental health can also have a debilitating impact on a person’s performance and productivity. As people spend a large proportion of their lives in work — a safe and healthy working environment is critical. We need to invest to build a culture of prevention around mental health at work, reshape the work environment to stop stigma and social exclusion, and ensure employees with mental health conditions feel protected and supported,” added Guy Ryder, ILO Director-General.