Mental Health Statistics - What You Need to Know!

Mental health is about as stigmatised as you can get when referring to health issues. Outside of the professionals, no one wants to be associated with 'madness'. Mental health statistics show us that this is too broad a brush to use. There is a lot to understand if we want to understand mental health and the problems associated with it.

When statistical information is put together, it can be classified in many different ways. For example, mental health statistics could be categorised under any of the following:-

Affective Disorders
Amnesia
Anxiety Disorders
Dissociative disorders
Mental Health Services
Psychology, Pathological
Mental Disorders
Mental Health
Mentally Ill
Panic Disorders
Personality Disorders
Schizophrenia
Sleep Disorders
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
Substance-Related Disorders

And so on. There is no simple discussion to be had here. The subject of mental health has many arms, and I would suggest that most of us have been touched by one of them, if not by family, then through friends or someone you know. If you choose to include depression as a symptom of a mental disorder, then I would suggest that you have a very major problem on your hands.

If you consider the economic impact of mental health problems using these categories, then it could certainly be argued that business suffers a great deal from the effect of this kind of illness amongst its employees. Even if not in lost time, because people may not recognise a problem and continue to try and work. Unfortunately work attendance does not in itself mean work efficiency. In fact, if the minds of the employees are not properly focused, then the converse is most certainly true.

But perhaps we should be looking at this a bit more closely?

Should employers take the metal well being of their employees into account? In my opinion they should, yes. I am not suggesting that employers should provide off the shelf psychiatric help, but they should certainly take steps to protect their employees mental welfare. Anything that might cause mental distress to an employee, like bullying or harassment, should be taken very seriously and eradicated.

In studies carried out a few years ago, major depression was the second largest disease affect us, carrying over 9% of the total number of diseases that hit the community. This ranked above traffic accidents, lung cancer and alcohol abuse. It makes you think, doesn't it?

At the end of the day, the commercial viability of any organisation could be improved significantly by keeping a closer eye on the mental welfare of your employees.

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