Introduction
Over the past few decades, there has been a great deal of attention given to ways in which mental health difficulties among employees may affect their work. Also, there has been research on the characteristics of the workplace and its impact on mental health of employees. Like any other profession, employees in the nursing fraternity who develop mental health problems are most likely to hide these difficulties from their employer. If sick leave is necessary, alternative reasons to mental illness are provided. Researchers and employers increasingly recognize the extent to which mental health plays a role in physical health problems, and there are those who believe that separating mental health and physical health creates an artificial distinction due to one health.
Summary
The article entitled “Employee mental health treatment seeking: Perceptions of responsibility and resilience” by Gillispie et al., (2016) comprehensively addresses the specific issue as a general concern. The authors suggest that there should be a Federal law to ensure that employers accommodate people with mental as well as physical disabilities. Fortunately, employers have come to understand that emotional problems that employees experience are never left at the door at the workplace but impact the ability of the employee to function at work. Employees bring up the mental health disorders into the workplace. According to the research, of any employee population, 11.5 percent will have personals problems serious enough to affect the job (Gillispie et al., 2016). Certainly, employees are all aware when fellow employees are having problems. Provision of appropriate work accommodation, with the goal of enhancing employment retention for individuals with mental health disorder and preventing work disability, is challenging for many reasons. The impact is adverse meaning that action is required to address the issue.
Financial Impact
Besides the commonly experienced negative financial impact following a chronic illness or disability, people with disabilities often become isolated and experience a decrease in self-esteem related to their diagnosis, disabilities or chronic health conditions. The work environments can offset health and retirement benefits. Besides, most work environments provide social environments that require people to interact with others, perform customs that can prove meaningful and provide opportunities for growth.
These activities sustain physical and mental health. Also, more than 70 percent of individuals who are diagnosed with depressions seek employment or are employed; more workers do not report to work due to stress and anxiety compared to physical illnesses. The direct cost to employers of medical care for workers’ mental illness is substantial. Workers who experience untreated mental illness use inpatient and outpatient services three times more than those receiving treatment.
Impact on Personnel
Despite the significant potential benefit related to work, there can be times where work is considered hazardous or harmful and to have a negative impact on the individual. Especially, an incongruent personal environment fit can lead to higher levels of depression and stress. An incongruent fit is one where the individuals personal work style, personality and value of system do not fit with or are incongruent with the work environment. Nurses and medical staff usually rightly consider this as a normal or understandable circumstance when the physical illness is presented, and a few conditions are identified between adaptive and maladaptive responses.
Patient Care
The stigma of mental health problems is present in all levels and accompanies serious impacts on patient care, for several workers. Stigma prevents individuals from seeking treatment when they are in need of it; family members may shun patients with mental illness, and patients may have difficulty reintegrating in a workplace. There is an additional possibility of stigma deterring health care providers from choosing to work in mental health.
Reputation of the Hospital
Most individuals become distressed while responding to major health issues, specifically in cases that require hospitalization, where the environment is of a different setting from everyday experience and usually perceived as unpredictable and beyond their management. The operation of mental health problems should be based on the community, but that hospitals need to perform an essential purpose as specialist providers. Therefore, there should be balanced care approaches using special hospital services within a system of care and raiment that is primarily community-based, and that promotes integration
Legal Ramification
A mental health policy has most of the time been treated separate policy arena. It has additionally been a stepchild and has not received the small level of recognition and support as physical health. Worsening the situation is the fact that, particular problems at the national state and local levels have led to a cutback in expenditure for public mental health programs.
Conclusion
Employers are best placed to intervene at an early stage, picking up signals that could lead to psychological distress. However, evidence indicates that current measures are deficient in combating mental health problems at work. Clearly mental health problems can reduce the ability to think clearly, create a lack of energy, make interactions with others difficult, and create issues with co-workers as well as the various physical effects.
Reference
Gillispie, S. K., Britt, T. W., Burnette, C. M., & McFadden, A. C. (2016). Employee mental health treatment seeking: Perceptions of responsibility and resilience. Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health, 31(1), 1-18.
