Work can be both good and bad for mental health
Work can be a significant source of stress and poor mental health, but ‘good’ work can contribute to better mental health, and the workplace itself can play a positive role in improving access to treatment.
The World Health Organization (WHO) ranks depression as the leading cause of disability and ill-health worldwide. A 2016 study found that lost productivity due to depression-related absenteeism and presenteeism costs the South African economy an estimated R232 billion a year, or 5.7% of gross domestic product (in 2016 terms); while the WHO also estimates the global economic cost of untreated depression at US$1 trillion annually.
With at least one in three South African adults likely to experience a mental health disorder in their lifetime, and employed people spending the bulk of their waking hours at work, the South African Society of Psychiatrists (SASOP) has highlighted that the workplace plays a key role in mental health.
“Good, meaningful work and mentally healthy work environments are beneficial for protecting mental health as well as aiding recovery from mental illness. Prioritising mental health in the workplace not only improves individual employees’ well-being but supports organisational performance and economic growth,” says SASOP member and psychiatrist, Dr Siki Gwanya-Mdletye.
She says strengthening the mental health aspect of workplace health services could also offer an innovative solution to the country’s large mental health treatment gap, which sees 75% of those with common mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety going untreated.
“The workplace can contribute both positively and negatively to mental health. Work can provide not only a livelihood but meaning, purpose and satisfaction – while unhealthy organisational cultures or exposure to trauma in the workplace can worsen mental illness for vulnerable individuals.
“Given South Africa’s high prevalence of mental illness and the substantial treatment gap, the workplace can also provide a good location for structured interventions to supplement the underresourced community level of mental healthcare.
“Such interventions need to go beyond feel-good pamper sessions and spa days at work, as lovely as these may be.”
Dr Gwanya-Mdletye adds that a greater mental health focus in employee wellness programmes and workplace-based healthcare services hold a number of benefits, starting with early detection and referral for treatment.
Early referral for primary-level treatment had been shown to shorten the duration of illness and improve long-term health outcomes, as well as reducing the need for costly specialist care or hospitalisation.
Locating mental health interventions in the workplace also has the benefit of consistency in treatment, since workers go to work most days of the week and workplace health services would be an “ally in treatment adherence”, as lack of adherence to treatment is a major challenge in successfully treating mental illness.
“This approach also retains the mental health benefits of engaging in meaningful work, and enables those with a mental health condition to continue earning a living – remaining a productive member of society and maintaining independence and dignity.
“Given South Africa’s high unemployment rate, there are significant limitations in a unilateral focus on employees. Ideally, responsible work-based mental health interventions should broaden their reach at the very least to the families of the employees they serve, and possibly to their immediate communities if resources allow,” Dr Gwanya-Mdletye concludes.
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