Use 'Mental Health Awareness Week' as a tool to talk to your colleagues

Mental health problems are common

It's known that 1 in 4 British adults experience at least one diagnosable mental health problem in any one year(1). So why is there so little understanding about this? Awareness is increasing with the help of dedicated charities and developing government policies to eliminate discrimination but still very few people are trained in how to distinguish and help when a colleague is struggling.

Stress and anxiety in the workplace should not be ignored

Research (commissioned by the mental health charity Mind) has found that work is "the most stressful factor in people's lives with 1 in 3 people saying their work life was either very or quite stressful" (2). Despite this, 45% of employers think that none of their employees would be suffering from a mental health problem(3). In fact, 1 in 6 workers are currently experiencing depression, anxiety or distress(4). What proportion of your company is that? Every size of business, whether a start up, SME or corporation are all are equally responsible for looking after their worker's physical and mental health in the workplace. 

What can be seen as an 'ordinary' level of stress in the workplace can quickly progress to being problematic for both the employee and employer but it is often not picked up on as something that can be improved with professional psychological help. Ignoring mental health issues in the workplace could lead to the affected member of staff dramatically reducing their productivity and draining company resources by continuing to work whilst unwell.

Larger businesses may well have a developed plan to spot problems and help those in need but what happens in smaller companies that cannot dedicate funds to mental health insurance? 8 out of 10 company directors say that their company has no formal policy to deal with stress and mental ill-health(5) which, with the amount of money being lost in society due to these issue each year (£25 billion according to The London School of Economics), is clearly not enough.

Raising awareness to combat typical problems

Mental Health Awareness Week is one of the few platforms used to raise awareness of the issues that are affecting such a large proportion of the population. There are events going on all over the country but by just talking about mental health in a more open and free manner some of the stigma, can be reduced. An entrenched culture of stigma about stress and mental health problems is costly to employers both financially and staff turnover. Expected stigma in the workplace caused by admitting to being overly stressed or suffering from a mental health problem can be a certain way of silencing anybody and preventing them from finding help. In a small team, without a specified HR contact or close friend in the company, there can be few people available who seem appropriate to talk to if you are suffering – whether from a diagnosed mental health problem or unusual stress levels. Proactively creating a pathway for people looking for help could give the necessary guidance for people to start getting better. By having systems in place to create an unobtrusive support network for those who need it and investing in current employees mental health productivity will ultimately increase and you will not have to loose valuable team members.

It is well documented that people with diagnosed mental health issues can work effectively and easily within a supportive and flexible environment. Stigma can be reduced by raising awareness of mental health issues and signposting the way to get any necessary help in your workplace. If a problem has been identified with one of your team and they need mental health care, it is much better to get them help quickly and discreetly rather than to ignore the problem – after all, you wouldn't let somebody continue as normal with a untreated broken leg in the office. The help needed may be as simple as somebody to talk to, but for more complex problems, there are solutions which allow treatment to take place whilst at work.

If you identify a team member who may have an emerging mental health issue, discretion and a willingness to help them are key. For more information on how to help a colleague and identify problems, the Mental Health Foundation has some useful guides to start with.

This year, Mental Health Awareness week aims to highlight the impact that physical activities can have on mental health and general wellbeing. For more information about activities taking place this week visit: www.mentalhealth.org.uk

PsychologyOnline

PsychologyOnline is a Cambridge based company providing live online confidential therapy nationally to both NHS services and private individuals or companies. The convenience and flexibility of the service makes therapy accessible to those who may not have had time before – sessions can be after working hours, at the weekend or fitted into the working day. There is no need to travel as appointments take place in a secure online meeting room accessed from any computer with an internet connection.

Once you activate your online account you will be assigned a therapist and you can start therapy within a few days. You will assigned one of our team of experienced Chartered Psychologists and accredited Psychotherapists for the duration of your treatment.

PsychologyOnline is an appropriate treatment method for issues such as anxiety, bereavement, child and family issues, depression, drug and alcohol misuse, eating disorders, managing anger, managing pain, OCD, panic, phobias, post-traumatic stress, relationships, sexual difficulties, stress management and terminal illness.

We are available to provide either individuals or businesses with mental health treatment with great discretion and at the user’s convenience. If your business would like to discuss cover for employees as part of a benefits package, please contact Stephanie Ruskin at s.ruskin@psychologyonline.co.uk.

If you have any other questions about our service and what it can do for you then please contact us at info@psychologyonline.co.uk.

(1) The Office for National Statistics Psychiatric Morbidity report, 2001

(2) Mind, www.mind.org.uk

(3) Equality and Human Rights Commission, 'Mental Health and the workplace, 2010'

(4) Equality and Human Rights Commission, 'Mental Health and the workplace, 2010'

(5) Mind, www.mind.org.uk

Mental Health Awareness Week 2013

PsychologyOnline support the continued need to raise awareness of mental health issues. Mental Health Awareness Week, 13-19 May 2013, is organised by the Mental Health Foundation and aims to highlight the impact that physical exercise and activity has on mental health and general wellbeing.

Physical activity is often described as something we ‘ought to do’ to avoid developing health problems such as diabetes and heart disease. What's less often explained is the huge potential it has to enhance our happiness and quality of life and reduce mental illness.

Here’s some advice from the Mental Health Foundation:
Physical activity has a huge potential to enhance our wellbeing. Even a short burst of 10 minutes brisk walking increases our mental alertness, energy and positive mood.
Participation in regular physical activity can increase our self-esteem and reduce stress and anxiety. It also plays a role in preventing mental health problems and improving the quality of life of people experiencing these.

Read more in this free booklet from the Foundation: ‘Let’s Get Physical’

Find out more about Mental Health Awareness Week here: http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/

To see what events are happening in your area click here.

13th May 2013

Top definition tool deemed 'unscientific' by National Institute of Mental Health

A manual once used to diagnose all issues regarding mental health is to be shelved by the National Institute of Mental Health after being dubbed 'pseudoscience' and 'unscientific' by experts in the industry.

"Next month, the latest edition of a book will be published in America that, according to its critics, will give you a starring role in your own private performance of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest – by turning aspects of your normal behaviour, such as checking Twitter a little too often, into a new mental disorder.

Many see its publication as part of a continuing attempt to create order out of the chaos of the human mind by updating a set of common criteria for mental disorders that encourages research as well as helping in the diagnosis and treatment of patients.

Yet the debate is so polarised that the American Psychiatric Association (APA) is publishing the $200 fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) into a maelstrom of controversy. Indeed, two of the DSM's fiercest critics, Dr Allen Frances and Dr Robert Spitzer, are former chairmen of the task forces that composed previous editions.

Now, just two weeks before the new edition appears, the National Institute of Mental Health, the world's largest mental health research institute, has announced that it is withdrawing support for the manual as "it lacks validity" due to the unscientific basis of its classifications."

Read more on the story, written by Mark Piesing, here.

9th May 2013

The bigger picture for e-health

For this e-health theme issue, the Bulletin brought together leading thinkers in the field of e-health to discuss how new technologies can lead to better health for all.

Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu is chairman of GeHAP, the Global eHealth Ambassadors Program of the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth, which aims to raise the profile of e-health worldwide, through advocacy activities.

Q: Can e-health help narrow gaps in social inequality across the world? If so, how?

A: Technology is a major driving force of our civilization. Whether through medicines to heal the sick or products for growing food to feed the hungry, or most recently information and communication technology to fuel economic and social growth, technology has always been intertwined with human development. Today the technology most accessible to the poor and disenfranchised is the mobile phone. If we want a vehicle for reaching the underserved with interventions from health and other sectors of the economy, the mobile phone is the technology of choice.

Q: Can e-health help to tackle the social determinants of health?

A: Definitely. What we need is a paradigm shift from information and communications technologies for health to a greater emphasis on information and communications technologies for development, which benefit health but also have an effect on education, agriculture, commerce, governance and other social determinants of health. What the poor and the vulnerable need is not only good health but good lives.

Q: What can governments and international agencies do to promote the benefits of e-health?

A: Governments set the rules of the game and international agencies have great influence on all players. The right policies and strategies for development of e-health, with proper emphasis on reducing inequalities can play a big role in promoting adoption of e-health technologies and thereby extend their benefits. Once people enjoy the benefits themselves, they will become agents of further promotion and drivers of future adoption. Developing national policies and strategies which create a fertile regulatory environment for e-health, building capacity through, for example, training programmes and on-the-job training for all health workers – these are some of the mechanisms through which governments and international agencies can help provide an enabling environment for the growth of e-health in countries.

For more interviews, check out the full story here

Flexible working to make therapy available at convenient times

Our recent article on the CfWI Blog:

"Guest blogger Barnaby Perks from PsychologyOnline reflects on the importance of the CfWI’s report on the psychological therapies workforce.


Psychological therapies include cognitive behavioural therapy, psychodynamic psychotherapy, interpersonal therapy, arts therapies (including art, music and drama therapy), counselling, and family and couple therapy. The CfWI Improving workforce planning for the psychological therapies workforce review was published today. As well as highlight the absence of a definition of what a psychological therapist actually is, the report emphasises the need to support workforce planning across organisations commissioning and delivering psychological therapies so effective services can be delivered. This needs to include new ways of working such as online services. At PsychologyOnline we believe that therapy should be made available in a way that suits the needs of service users rather than service providers. For many people this means accessing therapy in the evening from the comfort of home. For this to happen there has to be a shift in the way the therapist workforce is planned for, developed and managed on the frontline. We see a fundamental mismatch of supply and demand in psychological therapies. Therapy is predominantly made available during the working day, with limited out-of-hours service. However, our experience tells us that people don’t want to take time off work and prefer appointments outside the working day, especially weekday evenings between 6pm and 10pm. And they’d rather not travel. We believe that people should have the option of accessing therapy in a way that fits in with their busy lives. We use the internet to connect therapists and service users for therapy in a secure online meeting room – most choose to access the service from home on weekday evenings. For many people, online therapy is an efficient and convenient solution. However, it doesn’t suit everybody. There will always be some who prefer or need face-to-face therapy. We believe that widespread use of online therapy would free up valuable face-to-face resources to be targeted at those with the greatest need. Implementing online services across the NHS won’t be easy. The NHS would need to change the way it manages its workforce, particularly in terms of flexible, variable hours and home working. However, this must be addressed if the NHS is serious about providing services to patients that fit around their busy work and family schedules. Read the report: Improving workforce planning for the psychological therapies workforce Leave your thoughts below and visit us at http://www.psychologyonline.co.uk"

View the article here

Give mental health same priority as physical, says Royal College of Psychiatrists

The organisations, which take charge of commissioning NHS services from next week, should ensure that patients get ''equivalent levels of access'' to treatments for mental health problems as for physical health problems. The ''long-standing and continuing'' lack of parity between mental and physical health is ''inequitable and socially unjust'', according to a new report by the College.

''Much has been done to improve mental health in the last 10 years but it still does not receive the same attention as physical health, and the consequences can be serious,'' said Professor Sue Bailey, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists

Article via The Telegraph found here.

Mental health service users to get greater choice in care

The Government has announced that mental health service users will get more choice about where and how they get their condition treated by the NHS. Care Minister Norman Lamb said: “If any group of patients could benefit from being empowered by taking control of their own care, it is people with mental illness. Today’s announcement is a further step to make sure they have more choice, more control and more information about their care.

“We’ve made it clear in the past that there can be no health without mental health, and that we expect the NHS to place as much emphasis on people’s mental health as on their physical health needs. By giving patients more choice in their care, we are making sure they get the right type of high quality mental health care at the right time, which suits them and their needs.”

Article via mentalhealthtoday.co.uk found here.

PsychologyOnline offers professional support for those struggling with mental health issues. Our service is professional and confidential. For more details, see our website.

Children's mental health services to improve

Care and Support Minister, Norman Lamb, has announced funding of £2 million for new technology to improve children's mental health sessions. Children will be able to use tablet computers during their sessions with a therapist to see if they are achieving their treatment goals. Mr Lamb said: "Acting early to help children with mental health problems can prevent a lifetime of suffering as half of those with lifelong mental health problems first experience symptoms before the age of 14."

Article via Department of Health found here.

PsychologyOnline offers professional support for those struggling with mental health issues. Our service is professional and confidential. For more details, see our website.

More young veterans treated for PTSD than ever before

Leading military charities say they're treating more veterans under-30 for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than ever before.

The mental health problem is triggered by injury or severe psychological shock and anything from military combat to a traffic accident can cause it. Symptoms include flashbacks, severe anxiety, isolation and depression.

Read more of the story via BBC Newsbeat here.

PsychologyOnline delivers online cognitive behavioural therapy for those struggling with mental health issues, including PTSD. Our service is professional and confidential. For more information, see details on our website.

England to host international initiative for mental health leadership in 2014

Norman Lamb, Minister of State for Care Services has accepted an invitation for England to host the 2014 exchange.The exchange will help the NHS, local government and partners to speed up improvements to services, and support and improve mental health, by learning from experts from across the world.

The exchange will take place in June 2014 and will aim to build long term collaboration between leaders in mental health in the NHS, local government, charities and user organisations, allowing the continued sharing of information and learning for the benefit of people living with mental health problems.

Read more via Department of Health here.