World Mental Health Month is an opportunity for the United Nations System to have global conversations about mental health. The United Nations typically undertakes activities throughout the month of October and each week is dedicated to different topics. One of the topics this year an emphasis on mental health in the workplace. The United Nations released the following quote on workplace mental health:
Safe, healthy working environments can act as a protective factor for mental health. Unhealthy conditions including stigma, discrimination, and exposure to risks like harassment and other poor working conditions can pose significant risks, affecting mental health, overall quality of life and consequently participation or productivity at work. With 60% of the global population in work, urgent action is needed to ensure work prevents risks to mental health and protects and supports mental health at work.
It is essential for governments, employers, the organizations which represent workers and employers, and other stakeholders responsible for workers’ health and safety to work together to improve mental health at work. Action to address mental health at work should be done with the meaningful involvement of workers and their representatives, and persons with lived experience of mental health conditions. By investing efforts and resources in evidence-based approaches and interventions at work, we can ensure that everyone has the opportunity to thrive at work and in life. Let’s take action today for a healthier future.
For many of us, our workplace has a major influence on our lives. We spend a great deal of time there. We make friends there. We invest so much of our time and energy at work. We earn our living there and many of us spend our lives building a career. It is a significant part of our conversations and a place that greatly impacts our daily existence. It would make sense that the environment of our workplace can be a source of mental health and general quality of life. There are many stories of difficulties at work with varied issues and people. Most of those stories that we hear or tell are not about how we thrive but how we cope.
We also struggle in our country with workforce issues. Employers struggle to keep employees which causes destabilization within our organizations. We also have come to realize that our mental health related issues have had a major impact on our workplace environments. The personnel struggles have seemed to have grown with a great deal of stress on our leaders and management.
As a response to this need, we have taken the values and skills of the Creating PRESENCE model written by world renowned Dr. Sandra Bloom and designed it to give workplaces the opportunity to be trained in the knowledge, values, and skills to equip leaders to provide a healthy, trauma-informed and safe environment for their employees. We are hopeful that the leaders of our organizations will be diligent to take every opportunity to protect mental health at work so that we can all have a healthier future through this valuable program.
For more information go to this link: www.creatingpresence.net.
Gerry Vassar
President/CEO
