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people can have of their organisation in terms of mental health competencies include: • An environment of trust, encouragement and empathy where people can talk about mental health problems without fear of negative judgement. • Zero tolerance for stigma and discrimination related to mental illness or any psychological vulnerability. • Managers that can deal competently with sick leave, return to work and workplace adaptations and accommodations both for physical and mental illness. • Comprehensive and visible information on where to get help including employee assistance programmes. • Overall employee awareness training on mental health and maintaining mental wellbeing. These areas should be included in the organisational training calendar and managers’ personal development plans.
Domain 2: Create and maintain a mentally healthy culture Work is inherently mentally healthy as it provides meaning, status, routine, social connection and social and material support. Poorly-managed workplaces can, however, damage mental health through excessive job strain, uncertainty, poor procedural justice and bullying. This is a different challenge to domain 1, because here the workplace potentially creates or contributes to mental illness, injury or distress. Psychological injury is a developing area of health and safety as work is now largely based around mental processes rather than manual ones. We can expect to see a much stronger focus in this area from Worksafe New Zealand in the future. To avoid health and safety penalties, organisations can take the proactive approach by systematically, deliberately and transparently creating a healthy culture, and collecting appropriate
P R A C T I S I N G W E LL
▴ Hugh Norriss
▴ Sarah Taylor
metrics about how the workplace is affecting people’s physical and mental health.
on healthy living. As a starting point, support these people in your organisation and allow the idea of mental fitness to become contagious. Jogging and cycling were once fringe practices. In the mental space, yoga, mindfulness and meditation are now becoming mainstream and are enthusiastically endorsed by highly respected institutions such as Harvard Medical School as being good for mental health. Practices like these can be encouraged in your workplace with sponsored events at lunchtime or before or after work. Organisations are also increasingly turning to training in cognitive reappraisal techniques which help us to better manage the interplay of thoughts, emotions and behaviours.
Domain 3: Learn and promote psychological wellbeing From the wellbeing science we know that: • Mental wellbeing is a skill that can be learned. It can be thought of as mental fitness, developed through training, insight and habits. • Mental wellbeing is not just the absence of mental illness, it has its own distinct qualities such as meaning and purpose in life, vitality, optimism, feelings of accomplishment, healthy social engagement and contribution. • Mental wellbeing can act as a preventative to mental illness and mental distress. • Mental wellbeing behaviours boost neurochemicals in the brain that help us feel calm, pro-social, creative and satisfied. Corporate teams like lawyers who rely on cognitive and emotional strength to be successful can gain value from investing in mental wellbeing skills to ensure their business success and reduce the risks of psychological harms. Most workplaces have their wellbeing advocates. These are people who will enthusiastically organise activities and social events around wellbeing and promote information
The three domains together The three domains are not independent. Instead they overlap because we cannot neatly divide up different aspects of human experience. If you neglect one of these domains, it will impact negatively on the two. For instance, if you have an unhealthy work culture (domain 2), you will be undermining efforts to support individuals who are struggling (domain 1), and promoting wellbeing events (domain 3) will make people cynical and angry as it will look like you are papering over deeply harmful problems in the culture. 41