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Employers
should support employees with mental health problems, says charity
May
16, 2005
by staff reporter
Work
stress which leads to depression and anxiety costs the British economy
about £100bn a year in lost output, according to a report
by a mental health charity.
Anxiety and stress are responsible for the loss of about 45m working
days a year, and nearly 10% of the UK's gross national product is
lost each year due to job-generated stress, said the Mind report.
Employees
should be actively discouraged from working excessively long hours,
says the report, and there should be support for people with mental
health problems.
The
charity is also calling for changes in working practice to give
employees more control over their work and an appropriate degree
of self-management of workload.
It
said roles should be clearly demarcated, with defined responsibilities
and expectations.
The
charity's report - entitled Stress
And The Workplace - quoted
research on work-related stress by the Health and Safety Executive
claiming that 20% of employees suffered from stress levels described
as "very" or "extremely" stressful.
The
most common stress-related complaints presented to GPs were depression
and anxiety. Their reports indicated that such problems might affect
20% of the UK working population.
In
a recent CBI survey of more than 800 companies, 81% said mental
health of employees should be a company priority, but fewer than
one in 10 had an official policy on mental health.
Richard
Brook, chief executive of Mind, called for more openness about stress
and mental health problems in the workplace.
"Today's
competitive and pressured work environments can make it difficult
for people to disclose mental health or work stress problems without
the fear of affecting their career prospects," he said.
Read for
yourself:
Mind's stress and the
workplace report
(pdf)
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