Employers Urged to Provide Mental Health Support for Workers

KINGSTON — A call has been made for businesses to set up employee assistance programmes (EAP), which will provide confidential mental health support for workers.

Director of the Public Sector Employee Assistance Programme (PSEAP) in the Office of the Cabinet, Doreen Grossett, made the appeal while addressing a recent mental health symposium at the Alhambra Inn hotel in Kingston.

She said that there are many employees, who are facing serious personal and job-related challenges and these problems, left unresolved, can cause interpersonal conflicts, which interrupt productivity.

“A lot of time is lost dealing with conflicts in the workplace, dealing with even physical confrontations in the workplace, and often, managers have to spend time dealing with conflict and interruption to productivity,” she stated, noting that an EAP, equipped with trained and confidential personnel, could provide assistance in this area.

The EAP provides counselling intervention, identification and resolution of productivity issues adversely affecting job performance, with a view to restoring the employee to an acceptable level of functionality.

Stressing the need for employers to put such a programme in place, Miss Grossett said that good mental health in the workplace will not only ensure the smooth running of businesses but positively impact the wider society as well.

“Dealing with mental health in the workplace is not just a contribution to your business it is a contribution to your community…because the employee that you have in your workplace, who is not well, is also interacting and is living in the environment external to your organisation. That staff member, who went home and ‘lost it’ could also have lost it in the workplace,” she pointed out.

“For managers, I am appealing to you, it is important for us to look beyond the product, to look beyond the service, and to consider the people, who contribute to us making and achieving those goals,” she added.

The PSEAP provides counselling support throughout the public sector, addressing interpersonal relationships, stress, family problems, emotional crises, financial problems, and providing leadership development.

By Garfield L. Angus, JIS Reporter