WHO’s Battle Against Mental Health Stigma

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The 10th of October each year in the World Health Organization’s calendar is World Mental Health Day.  Now in its 20th year, the organisations aim still resonates to this day; WHO are calling for the end of stigmatisation towards those who suffer from depression and other mental disorders and to allow access to quality treatment as and when it is required for those who need it.

It has since been revealed that more than 350 million people in the UK suffer from a mental disorder or a mental disorder that averts people from functioning normally.  Unfortunately due to the stigmatisation that is attached with such mental illnesses many people who are genuinely ill do not seek the attention they require which ultimately can make the condition worse.

By: itupictures

Depression is a league apart from just feeling a little blue or down.  Weeks could go by with a permanent feeling of genuine sadness and often interferes with daily activities and especially when functioning with work.  And it is in the workplace we are going to focus on as it has been highlighted recently that figures for work place stress are on the rise.

13 studies have been carried out recently across Europe which have highlighted the worrying trend in the number of mental health issues or “job strain”.  The increase is as much as a quarter (23 per cent) and it seems to continually be on the rise as more and more people now have demanding jobs across the continent.

There has also been a stark increase in the numbers of people attending their place of work.  Although the numbers of absenteeism are falling across the board in both public and private sectors the numbers of presenteesism are on the rise.  This is mainly due to the pressures that employees face such as redundancy – companies reported that when the announced there would be redundancies in six months time the numbers of employee’s not taking days off would increase dramatically.

Stress related absence is also on the rise.   Two fifths of employers have reported a rise in the number of absences over the past year and only 10 per cent reporting that the problem had decreased over the same period.

Hopefully the WHO campaign highlights employers who are failing to recognise the numbers of people in their workforces who are suffering from a mental illness and provide help and support to them and hopefully meet the target they set themselves 20 years ago.

Jenny Jones has written and contributed to many health publications such as Followhealth and bmi4sme.  She writes on many topics such as health and fitness as well as self employed health insurance coverage.

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