The last two years have seen a significant shift in perception and belief about mental health and mental wellbeing in the Indian workforce. From implementing Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) to conducting stress management seminars, Indian workplaces have become a little more aware of how crucial mental health is to the company’s bottom line and the employee retention.
Inclusion has become the new buzzword, going hand in hand with mental health awareness and work culture improvement programs. And while workplaces are inclusive of people with physical disabilities, genders, races, and religions, the bigger question is whether or not workplaces are inclusive of people with mental health issues. We spoke to industrial psychologists and therapists about the attitude of Indian workplaces towards people with mental health problems and what steps management can take to achieve inclusion.
The current scenario
Shedding light on the current scenario of Indian workplaces and their stance on mental health, Asif Upadhye, Director of Never Grow Up, a work culture consulting firm, comments: “Ten years ago, mental health at work it was a topic that was often overlooked. the corporate carpet, much less recognized in the first place. Discussions about anxiety, stress and depression, for example, were simply avoided because of the stigma attached to them. The idea of seeking support in the form of therapy was still a long way off. Today, however, the scenario has changed and for the better!” He reveals that LiveLoveLaugh’s (LLL) mental health to study (How India Perceives Mental Health – 2021) reported that a heartwarming 92% of people are open to seeking therapy and willing to support another person seeking mental health treatment. “With 65% of people believing that people with a mental health condition can live healthy lives and excel at their jobs, I would say that workplaces in India have come a long way from where they used to be” , it states.
His opinion is supported by Samriti Makkar Midha, co-founder and partner of POSH at Work and a clinical psychologist who also believes that Indian workplaces have come a long way when it comes to conversations about mental health in the last 2 years. “The pandemic has highlighted the importance of mental wellness and how there needs to be a discourse about it in workplaces, not only for employees but also because it affects productivity and, in turn, businesses,” she says. However, she notes that mental health policies are designed with the right intent, but systems have not yet evolved to implement them or give peers and leaders the tools to manage their unconscious biases. “As a result, we don’t see employees taking advantage of these benefits as much out of fear of lawsuits or professional repercussions,” she says.
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Sanika Tillway, Burnout Management Trainer and Founder of Forests of Freedom, explains the gap in understanding of mental health in the workplace. be prescriptive in nature and not involve employees in any way. On multiple occasions, employees turn off their cameras and continue working, defeating the purpose of the webinar itself.”
Imagining the inclusion of mental health
Midha recalls an episode shared by one of her clients: “My client had confided in her manager about her heightened levels of distress stemming from situations at home. They were aware of the impact of it on health and the drop in productivity levels. They had a candid conversation with their manager and shared that they are working with a mental health professional to work on developing their skills to handle the situation and the stress they have been experiencing,” unfortunately, says Midha, the information shared by her client , influenced the manager’s decision when a growth opportunity arose and someone else was chosen even though his client was the one with the required skills. “The manager operated from a place of concern where he felt new responsibilities could increase stress levels. The opportunity involved a change of location, which would have been very helpful for the client given the situation at home, but they were not invited in the decision making”, she comments.
Midha therefore believes that the journey of mental health inclusion is a long one for Indian workplaces. She strongly states: “We can talk about the inclusion of people with mental health problems only if we are able to create a safe space for people to be vulnerable and share their mental health problems as an experience and not as a judgment about their ability or inability to handle situations that make them see themselves as a ‘failure’. From my experience, I have seen that some organizations and leaders of people have embarked on this path, and there are others who are in a state of preparation.”
Tillway argues that the fundamental understanding of mental health needs to change in the workplace. She explains: “One, the leadership in every organization that is looking to make a difference when it comes to employee wellness needs to be made aware and educated on the topic of mental health. Second, mental health is not the same for everyone; both conversation and action about mental health need to be nuanced and intersectional. This means understanding that each individual will come with their own unique life experiences, accompanying challenges, and/or pre-existing mental health conditions. Organizations therefore need to formulate policies that take this into account and prepare to accommodate concerns that they may not have experience addressing.”
Upadhye believes that driving inclusion from the top down opens the door for employees to talk about their own experiences as well. “Modeling healthy behaviors, such as setting clear limits when it comes to working hours or making time for self-care, even in the middle of a busy day, will help normalize the conversation about mental health issues and the associated social stigma. with them,” he said. he says. He adds that before developing a program to support people with mental health issues in the workplace, employers need to understand how mental health affects their employees in the first place. “Organizations automatically perform better when their employees are happy and productive. And so creating a culture that recognizes and supports mental health is a step in the right direction. The benefits of advocating for the inclusion of people with mental health issues or pre-existing conditions are many,” she shares.
The benefits of inclusion
Upadhye, who works with a number of organizations, has found that companies and workplaces that prioritize mental health and take concrete steps to create a supportive environment consistently outperform their competitors. He reveals that there is a lot of evidence showing the connection between strong mental health policies and lower employee turnover. “From a cultural perspective, workplaces that recognize and support employees with mental health issues also tend to do well on job satisfaction and employee engagement surveys,” he shares.
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Zahabiya Bambora, Psychologist and EAP Coordination Manager, Hopequre.com, muses that if all organizations implemented EAP in the near future, there would be a significant change in people’s perception of mental health problems and that it is normal to have them and fight them “The byproduct of implementing such wellness programs is that it enforces reciprocal behavior. It allows employees to give back to the organization with their increased productivity and loyalty in return for providing help in times of need,” she says. “A positive mental health workplace can increase productivity, increase motivation, reduce and manage workplace conflict, drive better job outcomes, improve employee confidence and agility,” she adds. Bambora adds: “Management and leaders need to learn what their work culture looks like, not just from the outside, but more from the inside. They should be open to constructive feedback about the work culture facing executive-level employees. They first have to be open to providing opportunities and opportunities to people who are currently suffering from mental health problems if the employees are available for it.”
Three steps to make your workplace more inclusive of mental health
Samriti Makkar Midha, co-founder and partner at POSH at Work and a clinical psychologist, shares three important steps organizations can take toward mental health inclusion:
Use inclusive and person-centered language
It would be helpful to hold on to the idea that a person living with mental illness is a person first and is not defined by their illness. It can help us not to allow the disease to define the person or influence decisions about their abilities and skills. The use of externalized language can further separate the person from mental health problems or illnesses, which can further diminish stereotypes, prejudices and covert forms of discrimination and microaggressions that generate an experience of exclusion and marginalization for people. people experiencing mental health problems, and build a culture of acceptance and sensitivity to differences. Example: A person suffering from depression and not a depressed person; a person suffering from schizophrenia and not a schizophrenic person.
Deconstruct entrenched ideas about mental health
It would be pertinent to do this, especially with leaders and decision makers, to be aware of the unconscious biases at play when having conversations with people who have lived with mental illness and are functioning well with the right support and interventions. Inviting people into decisions that impact them could help counter bias.
Take constant feedback
Any initiative on inclusion is successful if we have the buy-in of the leaders and it is an initiative that is carried out at all levels of the organization because it is feasible and sustainable, so that it becomes part of the organizational culture. Therefore, seeking constant feedback on the implementation of the initiative from those who are affected by it would be key.
Divya Naik is a Mumbai-based psychotherapist.
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