Some of Britain’s biggest employers are requiring quick action to honour a promise to give mental health the same status as physical health at work.
Royal Mail and WH Smith are among the companies asking the PM to follow through on her pledge to update health and safety legislations. This would mean employers would have to provide appropriate training for staff to deal with mental ill health. Around one in six of people at work have symptoms of a mental health condition.
A government-commissioned review put the cost of those conditions such as depression and anxiety or stress to the economy at between £75bn and £99bn a year. It is estimated that 15.4 million working days are lost due to work related stress.
Fionnuala Bonnar, chief operating officer of Mental Health First Aid which is leading the campaign said the letter showed that business leaders recognise the need to support their employees’ mental health as much as their physical health.
“This is just one part of improving approaches to workplace mental health, but it represents an important step forward,” she said.
“Ensuring that first aid support is there for the millions of people who struggle with their mental health every year will make a big difference to how we all think about our health as a whole.”
Stephan Clarke, chief executive of WH Smith said: “We are calling for this legislative change, alongside many other leading employers, as we firmly believe that everyone should have access to first aid support for their mental health regardless of where they work.”
At the last general election, the Conservatives said they would amend health and safety rules, so employers would have to treat mental health the same way as they treat physical health. 50 executives have written to Theresa May asking for her to prioritise this pledge. The companies behind the letter argue the promised change in law would help break the mental health stigma at work.
It is said that 300,000 people lose their job each year due to mental health problems and a survey from mental healthy charity mind say half of employees are affected by poor mental health out of 44,000 asked.
