Mental health and psychosocial issues: what three years of cases tell us

Paul Flanagan on what our own case data says about psychosocial hazards, personal life and where organisational action actually helps.

Recently there has been a great deal of focus in Australia on WHS regulation of psychosocial hazards, meaning organisational and work issues that can adversely impact employee mental health and wellbeing.

Work psychosocial factors can impact employee mental health, in a general sense or acutely, and so need to be understood and managed. Having said that, mental health is complex, multifactorial and ultimately individual. It is therefore important to look at how an employee’s mental health is shaped by their experience at work as well as by everything else in their life.

We reviewed our cases over the past three years to dig a little deeper into the nature of employee mental health cases, the role of work factors and what is needed in different situations. Four themes emerged.

1. Personal life is the leading driver

Our mental health is most strongly impacted by the things that matter most to us. Most employees who seek professional help for mental health concerns do so because of issues in their personal life, outside of work: partner relationships, family issues, juggling responsibilities, and general life stress and anxiety.

When something goes wrong with the things that are most important to us, our psychological wellbeing can quickly unravel. It is important to have a program that helps employees with life challenges early, not simply in a crisis when the unravelling has begun and is spiralling. A proactive, early intervention program is a much more reliable path to a quick and sustainable recovery.

2. Work and life are entangled

It is difficult to untangle life and work issues, as they are continuously interacting to impact our psychological functioning and wellbeing. What presents as a work cause may be due to difficulties in someone’s personal life, and the reverse is just as common.

Because of this entanglement, a broad-based, whole-of-person program is needed, managing both work and life issues rather than drawing a line between them.

3. A pattern across a group points to a work hazard

Where a work-related issue is impacting mental health across a population, or a subgroup, it is likely that there is a psychosocial work hazard that requires organisational action or change. Repeat mental health issues across people in a role or area suggest a job design, resources or environment issue that needs to be identified and addressed to alleviate the problem, often alongside support strategies such as skills training, coaching or debriefing to mitigate the effects.

That is not to say that employees in this scenario would not benefit from individual professional support. But from a preventive perspective, an assessment should be done to identify and adjust the relevant work and organisational factors as far as is feasible.

4. Most work-related issues are individual

An individual with a work-related mental health issue, as opposed to a pattern of mental health issues across a group, is more common in workplaces. This individual employee problem tends to be related to personal vulnerability, job fit, unique experience in the role, or a compounding external stressor.

As such scenarios are the most prevalent, it is important to have professional support, usually through an EAP with the resources to partner with HR and WHS to assess the issue and recommend the appropriate case and situation strategy.

When the EAP and HR or WHS partner on these cases to provide a supportive and solution-oriented approach, the temperature and tension drops, conflict and escalation is avoided, and the case can move to a positive resolution for the individual and the organisation. This is the kind of partnership our Proactive EAP^® is built around, and it is a large part of why it reaches and helps people earlier.

The takeaway

The focus on psychosocial work hazards is useful from a job design and culture perspective for all organisations, and is particularly useful in industry sectors with roles carrying inherent psychosocial risk. It also places on notice organisations with toxic or neglected cultures.

Having said that, the mental health concerns of most employees stem from multiple factors and from the individual’s experience, capacity and vulnerability. As a result, the most useful professional input helps to address this with the individual or, where work factors are most salient in an individual case, jointly with the individual and the organisation.

Mental health is complex, multifactorial and ultimately individual. A program that only looks at work will only ever see part of the picture.Paul Flanagan, Registered Psychologist and founder, Life Street

Paul FlanaganRegistered Psychologist and founder of Life Street, Paul has more than 30 years’ experience in clinical and organisational psychology, working with organisations, managers and employees in Australia, New Zealand and globally. He has been appointed multiple times as President of EAPAA and to the Board of the Australian Psychological Society. Meet the team

Keep reading

Perspective

Reimagining the traditional EAP

Op-ed

EAPs promise support. Are they delivering?

Interview

Is it time to think differently about EAPs?

See all resources → · How our Proactive EAP^® works →