World Mental Health Day focuses on your care at work

Mental health is the center of social debate after years of being ostracized as a taboo topic. In Spain, according to data from the AXA Group International Study on Mental Health and Wellbeing carried out with the College of Psychologists of Spain, a third of the population admitted to having some mental health problem.

In addition, the report also shows that Spain heads the list of countries studied in other aspects: 62% of Spaniards feel quite stressed, 68% find it difficult to relax, and 67% feel depressed and sad. 

That is why it is so appropriate to celebrate this Thursday, October 10, World Mental Health Day, a day in which the World Health Organization focuses on this global problem and that specifically in 2024 focuses on its impact in the workplace.

For the WHO “safe and healthy workplaces help protect mental health, while unhealthy conditions, stigmatization, discrimination and exposure to risks such as harassment and other poor working conditions are important risks that affect mental health and overall quality of life and, consequently, participation and productivity at work.”

Given that 60% of the world's population works, it is vital to adopt measures so that work prevents risks to mental health and protects and promotes it.

For this, the Organization has prepared a list of nine tips, which we reproduce here:  

1. Mental health and work are closely related. The better conditions, better mental health and more stability. The worse conditions, mental damage, lower satisfaction and lower productivity.
2. Workers are exposed to risks to their mental health, such as discrimination, poor working conditions or lack of autonomy. Job insecurity and low wages increase psychosocial risks.
3. Consequences for the person. Neglecting mental health problems undermines self-esteem, reduces job satisfaction and limits work capacity, a problem that impacts the affected person and their environment.
4. Wider impacts on work and society: reduce performance, increase absenteeism and lead to staff turnover.
5. Stigmatization creates barriers to employment, barriers that employers can reduce with training and awareness-raising.
6. Helping workers develop their potential, through appropriate adjustments, such as offering flexible hours or organizing support meetings.
7. Train managers to promote mental health and recognize and manage stress factors at work to generate more effective, supportive and supportive work environments. healthy.
8. Public authorities must act and cooperate, because these advice also affects them when they act as employers and because they must formulate policies that prevent health risks mental.
9. Taking care of one's own mental health, since we can all act to promote our own well-being: learning techniques to manage stress, monitoring one's own mental health and asking for help in situations that require it is the key.

To turn this list of advice into a decalogue, we also collect here the words of Manuel Bestratén, expert in Workplace Safety, Prevention Management and System Audits with more than 40 years of experience in this field and, in the latest edition of the Escolático Zaldívar Awards, recognized for his professional excellence.

We asked him what improvements the Occupational Risk Prevention Law should contemplate, a text that is 30 years old, and in his opinion, the main task that companies should undertake is to improve the mental health aspect, as stated in this video.