Challenges related to mental health in the workplace

Abstract

Over the past decade, growing attention has been paid to the mental health of workers and its effects on the workplace. For example, the European Ministers of Health have advocated that employers include mental health programs as part of occupational health and safety (World Health Organization, 2005). The Australian Human Rights Commission (2010) acknowledged the need for workplaces to support workers with mental illnesses. Similar interests have taken root in the USA and Canada. In the USA, the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health (2003) suggested that employment for people with mental illnesses should be a national goal. The Canadian Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology (2006) raised prevention, promotion and treatment of mental illness as critical national issues. They identified the workplace as the intersection where "the human and economic dimensions of mental health and mental illness come together most evidently.".