News


Mind Week 2010 15th - 22nd May



About Mind week and the campaign

'Taking care of business' is Mind's campaign to improve work environments and working lives across England and Wales. The recession has increased the pressure on people at work, as job insecurities, money worries and spiralling debt take their toll on individuals mental health. For too long mental health has been a taboo subject in the workplace, with millions of people feeling that they need to put on a 'brave face' and hide their mental distress.
We'll show how it doesn't need to be like this, that open and supportive workplaces benefit everyone: employees, employers and the bottom line. While employers can, unknowingly, cause or worsen a person's mental distress, they are also crucial to achieving mental wellbeing at work. Yet some employers are not doing enough to support the mental wellbeing of their staff. This is not only damaging for employees, it is also having a significant impact on businesses. We'll show employers just how much this issue could be costing their business. Mind is calling on employers to acknowledge that they do employ people with mental health issues, to take our advice, adapt their workplaces and take care of the mental wellbeing of their staff. Millions of pounds could be saved and millions of lives could be improved if employers took simple, inexpensive steps to improve the mental wellbeing of their workforce.

To help employers, we will highlight three things they can do to take care of wellbeing in their organisation:

  • promote workplace wellbeing
  • prevent the causes of mental ill health in their workplace
  • provide support to staff with mental ill health.

    • Prevalence of mental distress in the workplace

  • Each year, 1 in 6 workers experiences depression, anxiety and stress.
  • A further 1 in 6 experiences symptoms of mental ill health such as sleep problems and fatigue.
  • Half a million people are so stressed by their jobs they believe it is making them ill and up to 5 million people feel very or extremely stressed by their work.
  • Employer awareness of mental health issues at work in the UK isextremely poor. Most senior managers vastly underestimate the scale of the problem and most think it will never affect their workplaces.

    • Costs to businesses

    Employers with an unhappy workforce see their efficiency and profits suffer due to high levels of sick leave, 'presenteeism' (working in spite of illness) and staff turnover caused by mental illness. This is costing British businesses nearly £26 billion per year, or £1,035 per year for every employee. This includes:

  • Loss of productivity: employees who remain in work without the support they need could be costing businesses up to £15 billion a year.
  • Lost working days: 70 million working days are lost every year due to mental illness, with 10 million working days directly caused by work related problems.
  • Recruitment: staff turnover costs as a result of poor mental wellbeing cost £2.4 billion.