Wellbeing | Mental health: Is your data a true reflection of reality?

By Kay Needle, Early Intervention and Rehabilitation Expert at Generali UK Employee Benefits

While mental ill health continues to represent the top contributor to long-term absence in the UK, it’s our view that the data doesn’t always represent a true reflection of reality.

In our experience, HR systems – specifically absence platforms – have traditionally placed everything ‘mental health’ into the one ‘mental ill health’ category. But almost 7 in 10 of our early intervention referrals last year due to mental health were work-related. In other words, ‘non-medical’ stress as opposed to mental illness (more on this later). And that can be solved. So, where should employers start?

To help answer this question, we recently hosted a webinar for HR professionals, with special guest speaker Dr Victoria Parlane, Chartered Psychologist at Teladoc Health UK, the provider of Virtual GP, Mental Health and Second Medical Opinion services to the employees of Generali UK’s policyholders.*

In this discussion, we zoomed in on the younger generation. We wanted to focus here because the fastest growing contributor to sickness absence and economic inactivity is mental health amongst the 16-34 age group. And reversing this trend represents one of the key drivers behind the government’s Keep Britain Working final report and recommendations. Here are some of the highlights.

How did we end up here?

Kay: The first step is understanding the factors that have led us to this point. It’s a complex picture. And if there were a single solution, we’d be doing it already. Looking at factors impacting those aged under 35, we identified the Covid effect; the impact on education and early life experiences. Then, coming out of the pandemic, leaving education and entering a job market that’s seeing a reduction in graduate schemes. These schemes are at a seven year low right now. There’s also the impact of social media; not just the impact of using social media on emotional wellbeing, but also the spread of health misinformation online. Looking at all those factors and considering what you’re seeing in your experience Victoria, how did we end up here?

Victoria: Obviously we want to look forward not back, but we can’t ignore the huge impact of everything you’ve mentioned. For example, we’re seeing a lot of young people coming to Teladoc’s services with anxiety; even around having face-to-face conversations and interactions. We also see the impact of wider world issues right now on younger people. There are such a multitude of aspects in terms of why we got here.

Health misinformation overwhelm

Kay: When we look at where people are getting their health information now, a lot is coming from social media. It used to be the case that when you had a health issue, you’d go to your GP, sit in the waiting room and you’d see public health information on the noticeboards. That’s where we used to get a lot of our trusted health information. Do you think the employer has a role there in terms of a provider of reliable health information?

Victoria: Yes, it’s very difficult because young people are getting their health information from social media influencers. So, yes, it’s really important to be offering that safe space.

Kay: It's easy to feel overwhelmed with the work-related stress challenge because there are so many factors and some of those will undoubtedly sit outside the workplace. Obviously, that’s hard for organisations to influence. I think there’s a palpable sense that the issue has grown almost too big to tackle; especially in terms of prevention.

And although the workplace impacts wellbeing, it's important to remember it’s not a healthcare setting. But at the same time there’s a growing requirement for employers to play a part in improving the health of the overall population. So, what would your advice be to organisations?

Considerations for employers

Victoria: I’d advise organisations to consider – and be guided by – what’s going on at an individual employee level first and foremost. If we think about what’s within our personal control, there’s not much actually! We’re not in control of other people. We’re not in control of the wider organisational issues. But we are in control of how we perceive a situation and how we respond to it. And as we all know, perception often deviates a lot from reality.

Younger generations are often mislabelled, perhaps as disengaged, when actually they’re very driven by their own boundaries. They know what they want; undoubtedly guided by past experiences – going back to the Covid effect, social media influence etc. And they’re asking for more support.

This applies to people at all ages and levels of seniority. I think it can be a really lonely place for leaders. They might feel isolated. They’ve got demands on what they need to achieve in any given day. But where there’s good psychological safety at work (which may be defined as feeling safe to voice your opinions, ask questions and share concerns without fear of judgment), then individuals can think about their own boundaries; what is acceptable to me? what’s my responsibility?

Likewise, senior leaders can start thinking about their own health and patterns of stress; what does it look and feel like when they’re stressed? As well as stress patterns of their co-workers, observations of how people behave when stressed can help leaders intervene more appropriately.

So, while there’s a lot that’s out of an individual’s control, the key thing is to consider, what are my boundaries and how can I support myself and communicate safely and openly in a work context.

Kay: In terms of identifying where problems lie, the key starting point is looking at your absence data, also the utilisation of your benefits and services, like Employee Assistance Programmes and Virtual GP – delve into the data to find out the reasons people are calling in.

Within our own data, 68% of mental health absence at an early intervention stage, as part of our Group Income Protection support, is due to non-medical stress.

Something that has been a challenge in recent years for many organisations is that stress-related absence has tended to get categorised as mental health absence. HR systems tended to have a catch-all bucket, with mental health absence including stress, anxiety, depression and any other diagnosable mental illness. It was all categorised in the same way.

But that almost masks what I would perhaps call more preventable mental health issues. This could be things like stress, which isn’t a medical condition. If you have the ability within your HR systems to separate out how much of your mental health related absence is genuinely due to a diagnosed mental illness and how much is due to stress, the results could be very telling. It could reveal that much of the absence in your organisation is due to issues that can be resolved through a pragmatic approach. An approach that maybe doesn’t always need talking therapies or counselling or medication. Rather, it requires the nurturing of a psychological safe environment, where communication is prioritised. This could arguably solve a surprising number of issues.

*To access a free recording of the full webinar, entitled ‘How to reverse the rise of work-related stress’, please email [email protected]

Learn more about Generali