As we approach the Festive Season and the end of the year, it’s important to be particularly aware of the ‘seasonal’ trends in mental health impacts. While Christmas is a portrayed as a time for families to reconnect and relax, there is an established pattern of mental health concerns that come to the fore at this time of year.
It is more than likely that your organisation will have its fair share of workers going through a rough period at this time, as the Christmas period is renowned for bringing home mixed feelings for those without family, with difficult personal relationships, or who have lost loved ones. And if we overlay this with the heightened workload demands – with that usual end-of-year push to get projects finalised before the break (which is either forced upon us from Management or self-imposed by our own professionalism) – it makes for a ‘perfect storm’. (And if you give credit to the theory that the lunar cycle affects our mental health there may be an influx of concerns with the full moon due on Dec 27th.)
So, it is timely to look at how to focus on supporting our workers through this period.
The introduction of the Managing the Risk of Psychosocial Hazards at Work Code of Practice this year highlighted that PCBUs have a responsibility to manage the psychosocial (mental) health of their workers. It made us realise that, as an industry, we have become used to the mechanisms of managing the adverse mental health impacts (e.g. via the use of EAP providers and our on-site Mental Health First Aiders), but how good are we at identifying and managing the preventative side of the risk?
Does your organisation have programs or processes in place that are truly proactive and preventative in nature, and do not rely on a ‘breakdown’ event?
On the positive side of things, yes, there has been an emergence of mental health awareness and resilience training and a marked increase in the uptake on EAP usage, and there is much more open and normalised discussion about the mental health challenges we are facing, and the impacts – both psychological and physical – that these are having on us. This is a really positive starting point, but it also serves as a further reminder that we need to do more, get more focussed on this risk area, and get proactive.
Comcare recently reported that unsafe job demands are the most common psychosocial hazard in Australian workplaces, calling for improvements in the design of work like scheduling work to avoid intense or sustained workloads, planning shifts to allow adequate rest and recovery, planning work to avoid large fluctuations in demand, and reconsidering resourcing requirements. This indicates that there is a need for engagement and regular conversations with staff about work expectations, workloads and deadlines, client or customer demands, and all the other stuff that is going on in the background, as well as implementing processes for the early escalation of concerns before they become bigger problems.
Perhaps we could also use the Festive Season as a reminder to stop, take a breath and make a conscious effort to be a little kinder to everyone as we approach this holiday season.
