Good mental health in the workplace benefits us all!
Community leaders have been urged to commit to strengthening the mental health and wellbeing of South Australians in order to build mental capital and grow the State’s mental wealth.
At a Business Lunch organised by the South Australian Mental Health Commission, 230 guests, including business leaders, heard that organisations that fail to create and actively sustain a mentally healthy workplace would not attract or retain good staff. Indeed, they might be operating an unsafe workplace!
Governor Hieu Van Le; Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Leesa Vlahos and Chair of the National Mental Health Commission, Professor Allan Fels addressed the South Australia: The State of Mental Wellbeing Business Lunch at Adelaide Oval.
SA Mental Health Commissioner Chris Burns said that “building South Australia’s mental capital and growing its mental wealth will have a significant impact on the mental health and wellbeing, social cohesion and inclusion of our people; it will also improve our State’s economic competitiveness and prosperity.”
“Statistics show that each year 1 in 5 employees take time off work due to mental ill-health resulting in significantly reduced productivity for South Australian businesses.”
In South Australia, mental illness represents the largest share of all disease-related serious workers’ compensation claims – 19,000 out of 25,000 lost working weeks a year were due to mental illness.
While 91% of Australians believe mental health in the workplace is important, only 52% believe their workplace is mentally healthy and 56% believe their leadership values good mental health in the workplace.
Commissioner Burns said a workplace can only be as healthy as the culture its leaders create and nurture.
“Mentally healthy workplaces are better for everyone and they’re more productive, so it makes good sense to invest in the mental health and wellbeing of the workforce,” he said.
“It’s been shown that every $1 invested in workplace mental health initiatives generate an average return of $2.30.”