As we wrap up the second of our two final posts for 2018, we are glad to provide a summary of our Top Ten most read mental health articles with links to the original posts and the research that they are based on. In this way, this single post will serve as an anchor for all the popular themed posts for 2018 as you can access them from this one post itself.
Workplace Mental Health: Top 10 Most Read Blog Posts
1. Our top post for the year presented 9 mental health care strategies. These included: laughing and crying, getting out and about, exercising, treating yourself and making small incremental successful achievements. See the full post here.
2. Our post on how mental health affects us physically received wide readership and tens of thousands of views on social media. Research shows that declining mental health can even change your behaviour, for example, increased risk-taking and making poor choices. A chronic health condition can cause mental health decline manifesting itself into illness such as depression. All this can lead to decreased physical health and ultimately a shorter life. In this post, we presented 11 symptoms that are the result of declining mental health. Read more.
3. Employee engagement, burnout, and stress was a post that was also widely read. This post presented research findings on stress, engagement, and burnout. Less than 25% of employees are highly engaged and 39% are only moderately engaged. Employee engagement globally dropped from 65% in 2015 to 63% in 2016. Seven out of 10 US employees reported having felt disengaged at work. We provided strategies for employer’s to consider to improve support for their staff and discuss the signs of stress with strategies to reduce and respond to symptoms. Click through for more.
4. We published 3 strategies to better manage workplace mental health developed by the University of Tasmania’s Work, Health and Wellbeing Network. The 3 strategies that businesses should try are: to undertake stigma reduction and mental health literacy programmes, ensure clear roles and implement flexible working practices. See more here.
5. We recently wrote about how work can impact employee mental health. High job demands, low job control, high effort-reward imbalance, low relational justice, low procedural justice, role stress, bullying and low social support in the workplace are associated with a greater risk of developing common mental health problems. Read more.
6. Sexual harassment has been a topic in the media with the #MeToo movement and there have been a number of court cases against popular and well-known identities. The Australian Human Rights Commission released a report on the 4th national survey on workplace sexual harassment in Australian workplaces on the 12th September 2018. We presented some of the key points. Read more.
7. We provided nine ways for organisations to implement an integrated approach to workplace mental health. These are practical solutions for businesses in tackling and supporting workplace mental health issues and adopting an integrated approach to workplace mental health. Businesses need to focus on the steps that they can take to break down the barriers to encourage their staff to seek help and support as well as address stigma. Click through to read more.
8. Measuring the psychological safety climate in your business was a post that attracted considerable readership and click-throughs. With the cost of workplace mental health disorders and rising stress claims, governments around the world are focusing on ways to address this issue. The post describes how business can establish a psychological safety climate (PSC) benchmark and provides a range of low-risk and high-risk predictors that could be used to guide organisations in supporting employee mental health. See the full post here.
9. Our posts on mental health and wellbeing issues and key psychological resilience protective factors and stress relieving strategies that organisations can use within their workplace well-being programmes were well received. How well we are able to handle stress depends on our level of psychological resilience. The post discusses the Regulators’ requirements to identify psychosocial hazards within the organisation’s risk-management process and managed using the hierarchy of controls. Read on.
10. Investing in workplace mental health makes financial sense with a positive return on investment. KPMG crunched the numbers and this post details the return on investment for organisations investing in mental health programmes to support their employees. Investment in workplace mental health could improve workforce participation rates by as much as 30%. Full post here.
e-Mental Health Solution
Mobile mental health and e-mental health are new terms that have recently entered the arena and delivery methods that are supported by the Regulators around the world. Mobile health applications have evolved in the past two decades to become a major health communication channel for delivering health care, promoting good health and tracking health behaviors. Mobile health applications play an important role in supplementing and extending traditional delivery channels of mental health support. Read more.
- There are providers who deliver mental health training and there are others who can run diagnostic surveys to gauge their staff’s mental health state. The problem is engagement and accurate collection of data (people often only tell you what they think you want to hear). Tap into Safety‘s mental health platform is unique in that it offers training delivered online and via smart devices, anywhere, anytime on relevant workplace topics that impact mental health using fun animation, gamification, and interaction. As part of a well-being programme Tap into Safety helps business to manage workplace mental health better by providing relevant and interactive training.
- The solution offers ‘one click away’ from help to reach out for support (on average only 5% access their EAP when 20% have an issue right now – stigma plays a huge role here). Tap into Safety increases help-seeking by 100% as shown in the product evaluation conducted in 2017. By encouraging help-seeking early, we reduce the escalation into serious stress claims.
- Finally, the diagnostic tool (animated, gamified DASS-21) is a world first in its use across organisations, that together with our filters, enables them to pinpoint groups of staff in mental health decline so that they can target and tailor their wellbeing education programmes. This not only saves them money; their programmes are now more effective. Why not try a free demo?
If after reading this article you feel you need immediate support, please contact Lifeline.