What has the impact of the Stevenson/Farmer report been so far, and how will it affect future policy
In fact, it was concerns over the impact of mental health issues that prompted the Prime Minister to announce the review process on 9 January 2017. Talking at the Charity Commission’s Annual Conference, Mrs May said: “I want to turn to one of those burning injustices in particular – the burning injustice of mental health and inadequate treatment that demands a new approach from Government and society as a whole.
“…I want us to do more to support mental wellbeing in the workplace. So, I have asked Lord Stevenson, who has campaigned on these issues for many years, and Paul Farmer, CEO of Mind and chair of the NHS Mental Health Taskforce, to work with leading employers and mental health groups to create a new partnership with industry and make prevention and breaking the stigma top priorities for employers.
“Because mental wellbeing doesn’t just improve the health of employees, it improves their motivation, reduces their absence and drives better productivity too.”
Plain to see
The problems were already self-evident. We had:
- mounting levels of sickness absence due to mental health issues
- concerns over growing waiting lists for treatment
- the realisation that although suicide rates weren’t increasing dramatically, it is one of the leading causes of death in the working age population (with the highest occurrence being males aged 45-49 at 24.8 per 100,000*).
What Thriving at Work achieved was to bring the subject of mental health issues in to the public domain and encourage discussions both in the workplace and beyond. By being an easy accessible document, both in terms of availability and readability, the review has set the tone for open conversations about topics largely taboo in the past.
More to come
There is a long way to go yet, but Thriving at Work has moved the conversation on by leaps and bounds. Particularly, it has:
- increased understanding of both mental illness and mental health issues
- put real figures behind the impact of mental health issues on individuals, families and business
- helped to bring the subject of mental health out of the shadows and into the national consciousness
- set out a series of interventions organisations can put in place to help remove the stigma around mental health issues.
In the past 15 or so months since the review was published, those of us who work in the corporate wellbeing environment have seen a dramatic increase in activity in relation to mental health issues. While I’m sure not all of it is directly attributable to the impact of Thriving at Work, I firmly believe the review has been a spark, a catalyst to the current level of focus. Just consider all recent initiatives – health insurers are improving and promoting their mental health benefits for one and, in many cases, are providing direct access to care to allow fast, early intervention. Secondly, health plan providers are now offering mental health and wellbeing services alongside the traditional employee assistance programmes. There’s also been growth in wellbeing technology solutions, as well as a substantial and sustained demand for education on awareness, mental health first aid, financial education and personal resilience.
A step in the right direction
There is still a long, long way to go until mental health is on the same level as physical health yet Thriving at Work has clearly accelerated developments, thereby marking itself as a benchmark for us to see how far we have progressed.
The author is Ed Watling, employee benefits consultant (healthcare), Mattioli Woods.
This article is provided by Mattioli Woods.
References
* ONS - Suicides in the UK: 2017 registrations
