It was good to hear our Prime Minister speaking about mental health earlier this week, in between fielding questions about the “humanitarian crisis”, which the Red Cross says is unfolding within our NHS.
Many have suggested that Mrs May does have a point when she suggests that it is unhelpful to talk in “overblown” terms about issues, as it allows Politicians off the hook to some degree; because it allows them to deflect and talk about how unhelpful the use of these terms are – even if some parts of the Medical community have come out in support of the use of a term.
We have the same problem with the use of the “1 in 4 people will have a mental health problem in a 12-month period’ statistic. Every time I have said that statistic to ordinary people, I get the impression that they find it difficult to believe – the members of my football team are a prime example.
I was talking to a teammate who was having some personal problems when I mentioned the 1 in four stat. It seemed to attract everyone’s attention. As I verbalised the statistic, I could see them turn their heads left and right and look across the room. They were checking to see which of us was the 1 in 4.
I could see them looking at each, mentally counting and then concluding that there must 4 or 5 in this dressing room who are “mental” as one of them put it. Then they thought of all the people they know and then comes their damning and not too subtle assessment – “Well that’s bullshit!”.
This is the point at which you have lost them so; you face an uphill battle when you try to explain that mental illness isn’t just a permanent state. It does not simply mean that you must be sectioned and they fail to recognise that things like bereavement, stressful periods at work, the effects of chronic long term anxiety about paying gas bills, the rent, debts etc. can have a really profound effect on you.
Apart from the culture based stigma attached to mental illness, there is a general information deficit in society about mental illness. This fact in itself is one of the reasons we have 1 in 4 people experiencing mental health problems. People don’t know enough about it, to recognise the symptoms so they can do something about it.
We have worked with hundreds of organisations ranging from small organisations to those with tens of thousands of employees and almost always, via our diagnostics when we ask a question about which areas would you like more training on – mental health comes out clearly on top, time and again.
It is self-evident that our mental health affects how we feel, our moods, how we work, our behaviours and how we interact with others. What isn’t as well known is that our behaviours, the signals that we emit can also have a direct affect on the emotions of people around us. This then affects their physiology in terms of such as increasing their blood pressure and or heart rate. Dr Daniel Goleman, author, psychologist, and science journalist, describes this phenomena as people “catching emotions”.
Too many times people who are having a bad day wittingly or otherwise end up making sure that the people around them also end up having a bad day. A misplaced word or using a certain negative tone can cause an “emotional hijack” in the other person, which unbeknownst to them could last for weeks or much longer – rendering us as one of the 1 in 4.
Research now supports the important role that employers play in ensuring the physical and mental well-being of their employees and, crucially, how timely, effective interventions can have a positive impact on employee attendance and engagement.
The National Centre for Diversity has developed an excellent e-learning course, which we recommend to you. Click here to try the demo.
