How businesses profits from mental health.
Businesses and services are developing the understanding that informed practice around mental health benefits both service delivery and profits. Staff are happier and more productive when they know that their employers' practices and procedures do not stigmatize or discriminate against illness or experience.
Days lost to absenteeism, sickness or unproductive presenteeism decrease when employees are not anxious about being dismissed should they choose to disclose a mental health condition. The attrition of unexplained job resignations or sudden departures decreases when taboos around mental health are dismantled by enlightened policies and staff trainings.
Business and services profit from individuals who are being signposted to mainstream as part of their recovery plans. Mainstream social inclusion takes place in any outlet where a recovering individual feels he or she can prioritise a personal goal. Venues such as education and training centres, sports facilities, colleges, recording studios, voluntary organisations and arts groups are benefiting substantially and financially from motivated people accessing mainstream. Where individuals are not paying all the costs themselves, there may well be contributions from schemes such as direct payments or from built-in concessions and offers. The increased business generated by mainstream social inclusion is considerable.
Thursday 6 May 2010
The Business Case for Mental Health Awareness
The Business Case for Mental Health Awareness. The economic and social cost of mental health problems in the United Kingdom is well documented. In 2002/03 the economic and social cost of mental health problems in England was £77 billion. (SCMH, 2003). The economic and social cost of mental health problems is greater than that of crime and larger than the total amount spent on all NHS and social services in the UK (HM Treasury, 2005).
Dame Carol Black's 2008 report 'Working for a Healthier Tomorrow' was a major attempt to address these concerns. Legislative review such as the 2005 amendments to the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) highlighted the need to address the massive economic and social attrition behind issues of mental ill-health. In 2005 the Confederation of British Industry was concerned enough to commission its own research. Stress, anxiety and depression accounted for a third of the 168 million working days lost in the UK for health and related reasons in 2004, translating to a cost of sickness absence of about £4.1 billion (Confederation of British Industry, 2005).
As a result of legislation, employees have more rights and employers more responsibilities relating to the incidence of mental health in the workplace. Employees who choose to disclose a mental health condition to their employers are strongly protected by legislation and have the right to 'reasonable adjustments' that they may request their employers to make. In practice, it is still true that people with mental health diagnoses may well feel little confidence in this legislation. Nonetheless, their rights are enshrined in law. Similarly, employers have a legal responsibility not to discriminate against employees who have disclosed a mental health condition and to make any reasonable adjustments that have been requested.
Dame Carol Black's 2008 report 'Working for a Healthier Tomorrow' was a major attempt to address these concerns. Legislative review such as the 2005 amendments to the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) highlighted the need to address the massive economic and social attrition behind issues of mental ill-health. In 2005 the Confederation of British Industry was concerned enough to commission its own research. Stress, anxiety and depression accounted for a third of the 168 million working days lost in the UK for health and related reasons in 2004, translating to a cost of sickness absence of about £4.1 billion (Confederation of British Industry, 2005).
As a result of legislation, employees have more rights and employers more responsibilities relating to the incidence of mental health in the workplace. Employees who choose to disclose a mental health condition to their employers are strongly protected by legislation and have the right to 'reasonable adjustments' that they may request their employers to make. In practice, it is still true that people with mental health diagnoses may well feel little confidence in this legislation. Nonetheless, their rights are enshrined in law. Similarly, employers have a legal responsibility not to discriminate against employees who have disclosed a mental health condition and to make any reasonable adjustments that have been requested.
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