How to Assist Employees With Mental Health Issues in the UK

Each year approximately one in four people will experience mental health problems. Despite any taboo historically associated with the subject, mental health issues are, in fact, a common occurrence. This means that your employees may experience a mental health issue at some stage. As an employer, you should create an open and trustworthy workplace for your employees. This could help them to voice their concerns and for you to assist your employees struggling with their mental health. Not addressing mental health issues in the workplace can lead to a decrease in performance and, ultimately, the productivity of your business.

This article will explain how you can assist with staff mental health issues. It will first explain what poor mental health is and your obligations as an employer. It will then give some hints on how to spot poor mental health with a list of ideas on assisting with poor employee mental health in the workplace. 

What Are Mental Health Issues?

We all have mental health, and it is essential to take care of your mental wellbeing. However, mental health can move from good to poor, and the workplace can contribute towards this. 

When a person’s mental health is well, they can think, react, and feel healthily, enabling them to get on with their lives. However, when a person’s mental health is poor, how they think, react and feel negatively affects their lives. Likewise, they can experience difficulties in managing this.

Employer Obligation to Assist Mental Health Issues

As an employer, you have a duty of care towards all your staff. This means looking after their health, safety and wellbeing as far as is reasonably possible. This requires you to:

• provide a safe working environment;
• protect staff from discrimination; and
• carry out risk assessments.

Similar to your requirement to protect staff from discrimination, you also have a duty towards staff with mental health issues in the workplace. This is because a mental health illness can be considered a disability, provided it meets the requirements of a disability. If it does, you must ensure your staff with a mental health issue are not discriminated against based on this, and you must make any reasonable adjustments for them at work.

Where your staff experience mental health issues in the workplace, but these do not qualify as a disability, it is good practice to still assist them. If your staff do not feel supported and find it difficult to cope with their mental health problems, it will undoubtedly impact their performance at work and the general morale of your workforce.

Spotting Mental Health Issues in the Workplace

It is unlikely that you can immediately spot staff with mental health issues at work. However, it is wise to be aware that mental health issues can occur with staff in the workplace and, therefore, to be on the lookout for them. 

Here are some hints that suggest a member of your staff may be experiencing poor mental health:

• their behaviour or mood changes;
• interaction with colleagues is different from usual;
• their motivation or concentration has changed;
• productivity is different;
• decision making and organisation appears difficult;
• there is a loss of interest in their regular activities;
• they appear tired, anxious or withdrawn; or
• their eating habits have changed.

Assisting Mental Health Issues in the Workplace

As an employer, there are many ways to assist staff with mental health issues in the workplace. To do so, the first action you could take is to ensure that your work environment is supportive. A supportive workplace is one where your staff feel able to discuss their mental health issues and know that you or management will take them seriously and support them.

Here are some ideas of how you can assist your staff with mental health issues in the workplace.

Create Good Managers

As an employer, you may be the direct manager of your staff, or you may employ staff who have the role of manager over others. Either way, ensuring managers in your workforce are good at managing is key to assisting staff with mental health issues in the workplace. 

Notably, a key reason for stress relating to work is ‘management style’. Therefore, as an employer, you can ensure that your managers are trained well on managing staff. You can also reinforce the importance of good management in your work culture and reduce stress amongst colleagues in the workplace.

Hold Meetings

Additionally, ensure that all staff have regular meetings with their managers or team to discuss problems or concerns. This can alleviate any potential stress or worries that your staff may be experiencing. It can also help make your staff more confident about speaking up about mental health issues. 

Organise Training and Workshops

If you organise training or workshops on mental health, this can educate your workforce about the subject. It can also create a positive attitude towards mental health problems in the workplace.

Make Adjustments to Work 

When you are aware that a staff member is experiencing a mental health issue in the workplace, you may want to offer a change to their regular work if they think this might help. This does not have to apply only to those experiencing mental health issues. You could suggest a change to:

• how they carry out their role, which could include flexible hours, changing their break times or allowing them to work from home;
• the job role such as swapping some of their duties or providing them with a completely different role; or
• the support they receive, such as offering training or mentoring, or mediation between them and another work colleague if appropriate.

Create Good Support Mechanisms When on Sick Leave

Like poor physical health, poor mental health may result in your staff taking time off as sick leave. If they do, you can assist them with their mental health issues by creating a suitable support mechanism for staff on sick leave. For example, you can:

• ensure you keep in contact with them during their absence; and
• state in your sickness policy that you take mental health illness as seriously as physical health illness.

Point to Guidance 

While it is essential that you assist staff dealing with mental health issues in the workplace, you must also be aware of your limits. Most likely you are not a trained mental health support professional. Indeed, there will be times when your assistance with a mental health issue is not enough. 

However, as an employer, you can ensure that you clearly point out where your staff can get help for their mental health issues. This could be as simple as suggesting they visit their GP.

Key Takeaways

Your workers may experience mental health issues in the workplace. As an employer, you have a duty of care towards all your staff. If a mental health problem is considered a disability, you are legally obliged to make reasonable adjustments to help your staff. Whether or not mental health problems in the workplace are considered a disability, as an employer, there are many ways you can assist your staff with mental health issues. For example, you can ensure that your managers know how to manage and support their team, or hold regular meetings with staff to encourage openness and trust. You could also consider making changes to your employee’s workload or changing their role in your business. Assisting your employees with mental health issues in the workplace helps ensure the excellent productivity of your business.

If you need help assisting with mental health issues in the workplace, our experienced employment lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents for a low monthly fee. So call us today on 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page.

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