Forum Views - Oct 2024
Welcome to interactive presentation, created with Publuu. Enjoy the reading!
very year on October 10, we mark World Mental
Health Day and this year’s theme is focusing on
Eprioritizing mental health in workplace. For many of
us, this has always been a priority, but for many others this
could be a wakeup call. Around 60% of world’s adult
population is employed (WHO, 2024) and most of us spend
most of our time at work and go through different
challenges and work related situations that may
significantly affect our mental health.
Work/ employment can be a great source of financial
stability, personal and professional fulfillment and overall
purpose in life. These are all much desired and positive
aspects of many working environments.
However, workplace can more often than not be a source
of stress, mental and emotional exhaustion and burnout.
Globally, an estimated 12 billion working days are lost
every year to depression and anxiety at a cost of 1 trillion
USD per year in lost productivity (WHO, 2024).
The most common reasons for mental health issues in the
workplace are under or overuse of skills, inappropriate
work pace, long and inflexible working hours, lack of clear
structure and support, discrimination, harassment and
bullying at work, among other things.
As much as these risk factors are clearly systemic in
nature and are closely related to the respective collective
culture of the workplace, they mostly become an
individual problem and source of stress for individual
employees. This again leads to decrease in individual
employee’s sense of belonging and increased social
isolation. Affected individuals start to feel that they are on
their own and that this particular challenge they are facing
could be detrimental to their employment status. If
company’s culture is all about “soldiering up” and lack of
understanding for individual hardship, then there is no way
to prevent further damage from happening and resulting in
either disability or job loss or both.
IT IS TIME TO PRIORITIZE
MENTAL HEALTH IN WORKPLACE
Dr. Vedrana Mladina
Clinical Psychologist
NYU Abu Dhabi
Prioritizing mental health in the workplace means that
mental health in the workplace can no longer be an
individual problem. It is everyone’s problem and
everyone’s responsibility. From safe and healthy work
spaces to supportive and empowering working
environments.
That being said, having employee assistance
programs is no longer enough. Top down proactive
approach is necessary to lead by example and
normalize struggle at work by raising awareness,
leading by example and encouraging employees to
contribute with ideas and solutions for their respective
challenges.
Work/ employment can be a
great source of financial
s t a b i l i t y, p e r s o n a l a n d
professional fulfillment and
overall purpose in life. These are
all much desired and positive
aspects of many working
environments.
Abu Dhabi Emirate, United Arab Emirates
FORUM VIEWS - OCTOBER 2024
Global Insights
Associate Director of Counseling
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36