Working as a Mental Health Nurse back in the early 90s, I had gone through a lot of major changes within a few years – from becoming an RMN and buying my first home, to coming out as a gay man to my friends and family.
All of these things made me happy, but caused me no end of stress on top of the day-to-day work. I found myself struggling with my mood, I experienced poor concentration with bouts of crying for no reason, which began affecting my work.
Thankfully though, I sought counselling which helped me to get back on track and avoid any sickness from my job. OK, I work in mental health, and I struggled, but I knew how to seek help.
Yet, for a lot of people that just isn’t the case.
To recognise the signs and symptoms of mental ill health is one thing, and to then know who to speak to and what help might work for you is another complex thing entirely. It can take a while to even notice something isn’t right and even if you do spot the signs, do you then own it and do something about it?
In the UK, current data from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), show just over 50% of long-term sick leave is due to stress, depression, or anxiety. With employees reporting increased workplace pressures that are more demanding.
The Health Foundation‘s ‘What We Know About the UK’s Working Age Health Challenge’ (November, 2023) highlights a sharp increase in reported mental ill health, particularly among younger workers.
The graph above only shows data for 16 – 34 year olds, but in each age category it has risen.
The factors that have led us to this increase are complex and varied, but are clearly concerning to any employer and employee. These figures, I suspect, do not draw on the reality for many people with work-limiting conditions that are primarily physical as they may experience mental ill health, particularly if it’s long term. There are also employees who are experiencing mental ill health but continue to work, mask it, and suffer in silence.
I recently interviewed a diverse group of mental health service users and the one thing that got in the way of seeking help was the stigma – the need to cover it up or tell people it’s just anxiety or a low mood. Now this wasn’t to avoid seeking treatment, but to avoid being turned down for either higher education or work opportunities. The service users both experienced and believed having a mental health diagnosis would be detrimental to their educational and career development.
I wonder, do we need to focus not just on people trying to get into the workplace, but people who are in work with no defined mental health issue and those with work limiting conditions? If employers spent their time focused only on those who are on sick leave, then we are just looking at the outcome, rather than preventing people becoming unwell at work in the first place?
The Health Foundation (2023) notes that a longer-term view is needed to tackle the issue of work limiting conditions ‘although employment gaps between those with and without health conditions are closing, people with work-limiting conditions are still more likely to earn less, live in higher deprivation and face educational disadvantages’.
The government and employers need to consider the factors and respond with effective policies that focus on prevention and health promotion for all ages.
With this in mind, I ask what can be done now to recognise and respond to the needs of the workforce and to mitigate against ill health, particularly mental ill health?
If we look at any organisation, their values can tell us a lot about what they prioritise, and how they see their staff through the promotion of the excellent work they do – for example, showcasing evidence of celebrating achievements, team development days, nights out, secondments and shadowing opportunities, practice-based learning qualifications, being innovators and collaborators, not silo workers.
The list is endless of what we might measure when it comes to mental wellbeing, alongside the workers ability to feel they can influence, challenge, and grow.
In my opinion, measuring retention, sickness and absence is just a small part of the story and we must capture cultural issues through regular surveys of staff with follow-up actions based on the findings.
Organisations being intentional with their communications, particularly in job adverts that they are a mental health friendly workplace, can paint a really positive and inclusive picture.
What can teams do to improve mental wellbeing in the workplace? You might work in a large department of hundreds, or be in a small team… within a team. You might work part-time or condensed hours, be a freelance worker or agency staff. For some, being part of a team is stressful and for others it’s the thing they look forward to most when going into work. Friendships are made and broken at work, and we rely on each other, and support each other through the hard days and the good days. It is important for teams to have spaces to reflect, and for staff to feel psychologically safe and to be open and honest.
I wonder if the best place to start is by understanding how we process taking personal responsibility for our own mental wellbeing. Do you have regular supervision and if so, is there space for you to discuss your wellbeing? Or is it performance driven? Could supervision be more trauma-informed, is there a chance to look at the impact work has on you and a time to reflect and seek solutions to better manage your wellbeing? Do you manage your time well? Does your diary look like back-to-back meetings with lunch on-the-go?
The virtual world has taken away some of the joy of general chat and catch-ups with colleagues in between meetings and delivery of work. When do you put in the down time and be intentional about breaks even setting up meetings. So you can finish at five-to-the-hour rather than on-the-hour, so you can get that important space to… breathe.
Whether it’s the organisation living its values or the worker managing their mental health wellbeing, we can do so much to prevent staff from becoming mentally unwell. It doesn’t need to be major changes, big budgets and lots of meetings by senior staff in a dark room.
Instead, I encourage you to lean into the workforce, the willing, the ones who have great ideas. Put some reflection time into your weekly calendar. As all improvers say “keep it small and keep it simple”, trial it, evaluate it and if it works… keep doing it and share.
To the wider issues of mental wellbeing in the workplace, there is a need to know and understand the experiences of those with a work limiting condition that might help to shape the workplace for the future. To capture the workforce reflections and ideas on mental wellbieng that makes the place we are for a large part of our lives, a meaningful, supportive place to be, that gives us joy and pride in what we do.
If there’s one thing I would love to see change, it’s mental health being seen as part of our everyday at work and not a thing we look at once-in-a-while. If organisations’ felt that following the pandemic, support like wellbeing rooms for staff are no longer required then it send out the wrong message. If staff see that mental health and wellbeing are part of their everyday, it’s about prevention through support whether that’s in supervision or peer support – for example, having Mental Health First Aiders in your service.
Now for the big question, what will you do to make positive changes for yourself or your colleagues at work?
Case Study: A Partnership for Safer Care: The Advancing Quality Alliance (Aqua) and Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust
Case Study: Working in Partnership – The Advancing Quality Alliance (Aqua) and The Society for Acute Medicine
Patient safety and the new NHS Quality Strategy: A blog from Aqua and Patient Safety Learning
Dr Simon Moralee joins the Advancing Quality Alliance
Looking Back at 2025: 12 Highlights Across 12 Days
Aqua appointed to NHS Shared Business Services Framework for Audit Services
