Thirty-two years ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) hosted the first World Mental Health Day (WMHD). To launch this new awareness day, the WHO defined a two-part mission for WMHD:
- Raise awareness across the globe about mental health and mental health treatment.
- Teach people around the world about the issues and challenges people with mental health disorders face – and overcome – every day
Mental health providers, non-profit advocacy groups, public officials, and people with mental health challenges – and their friends and families – rallied to the cause. Enthusiastic participants planned and hosted event on all continents except Antarctica.
Remember that back in 1992, there was still a large amount of misinformation, misunderstanding, and misdirected stigma around mental health, mental health disorders, mental health treatment, and people with mental health disorders/in treatment for mental health disorders.
In fact, after two years of raising awareness about the basics of mental health, the WHO changed course, and decided to choose a focused theme for each WMHD. The first theme highlighted a move to improve mental heal services around the world. Over the past thirty years, some themes included:
- 1996: Women and Mental Health
- 2003: Emotional and Behavioral Disorders of Children & Adolescents
- 2010: Mental Health and Chronic Physical Illnesses
- 2019: World Mental Health Day: Focus on Suicide Prevention
- 2023: Our Minds, Our Rights
For 2024, the theme for World Mental Health Day addresses mental health at work:
It is Time to Prioritize Mental Health in the Workplace
Here’s how the President of the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH), Tsuyoshi Akiyama, explains the objective behind this choice:
“The goal is clear: to champion mental health in the workplace and build best practices that create cultures where workers have the potential to contribute productively and thrive.”
That’s a goal we can get behind. We understand finding and holding down a job can be a crucial part of recovery. Employment can boost self-esteem and help a person in recovery rebuild the type of confidence and belief in themselves that promotes long-term healing and growth.
Before we elaborate on how the WHO suggests we can improve mental health in the workplace, we’ll take a look at the current data on mental health in the U.S., with a focus on adolescents and young adults.
The following information will reinforce the need for everyone, from people with mental health disorders, to family, friends, advocates, providers, and policymakers, to participate in World Mental Health Day 2024.
Mental Health Among Adolescents and Young Adults
The most recent information on mental health in the U.S. were released in the 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), published every year by Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This large-scale, nationwide survey includes data from more than 70,000 people, a sample size large enough for us to get a real idea of what’s going in the country – and plan for how we can handle the increasing needs for mental health treatment and support for all citizens.
First, we’ll look at the data for young adults with mental illness, which the NSDUH breaks down into two categories: Any Mental Illness (AMI) and Serious Mental Illness (SMI). The NSDUH does not collect data on AMI and SMI for adolescents.
Mental Illness Among Young Adults in 2023
Any Mental Illness (AMI):
- 18+: 58.6 million
- Male: 23.8 million
- Female: 34.8 million
- 18-25: 11.5 million
- Male: 4.7 million
- Female: 6.7 million
- 18-20: 3.7 million
- Male: 1.5 million
- Female: 2.1 million
- 21-25: 7.7 million
- Male: 3.1 million
- Female: 4.6 million
Those figures show us that mental illness is significantly more prevalent among young adult females, compared to young adult males, a fact that can help us target our support in the year to come.
Serious Mental Illness (SMI):
- 18+: 6 million
- Male: 5.4 million
- Female: 9.1 million
- 18-25: 5 million
- Male: 1.2 million
- Female: 2.3 million
- 18-20: 1 million
- Male: 389,000
- Female: 729,000
- 21-25: 4 million
- Male: 831,000
- Female: 1.5 million
Those figures show us that serious mental illness is also significantly more prevalent among young adult females, compared to young adult males, which, like the data on any mental illness, will help us understand how to target and prioritize our support moving forward.
Next, we’ll review the figures on depression, for which we have data on both adolescents and young adults.
Depression Among Teens and Young Adults in 2023
Major Depressive Episode (MDE):
- 12-17: 4.5 million
- Male: 1.2 million
- Female: 3.3 million
- 12-13: 896,000
- 14-15: 1.6 million
- 16-17: 1.9 million
- 18+: 21.8 million
- 18-25: 5.9 million
- Male: 2.2 million
- Female: 3.7 million
Here we also see information that helps us help our young clients: significantly greater prevalence of MDE among adolescent females.
Major Depressive Episode (MDE) With Severe Impairment:
- 12-17: 3.3 million
- Male: 845,000
- Female: 2.5 million
- 12-13: 618,000
- 14-15: 1.2 million
- 16-17: 1.4 million
- 18+: 15.2 million
- 18-25: 4.3 million
- Female: 1.6 million
- Male: 2.7 million
Here again we see prevalence rates for adolescent and young adult females far exceed those for males, which helps us understand the significant need among this demographic for high-quality mental health treatment and support.
There’s something implied in these figures that’s essential for teens and young adults with mental health challenges to understand. There are millions of other people their age facing similar challenges. That means they don’t have to walk the road alone. There are teen and young adult support groups, organizations, and school clubs/networks designed to support their specific social, emotional, and psychological needs.
Now let’s review the ideas the organizers of World Mental Health Day have for improving mental health in the workplace.
Mental Health and Work: What We Can Do to Improve Work Environments
The plans we make today to improve mental health in the workplace will help our current generation the of adolescents and young adults as they enter the workforce in the near future, if they haven’t already. Awareness days like these are how we move the ball forward, year by year, until we reach our ultimate goal: and end to stigma and access to high-quality mental health care for all, from children through older adults.
To that end, the World Foundation for Mental Health (WFMH), in collaboration with the WHO, designed the following key messages for employers seeking to both support and improve workplace conditions that promote positive mental health.
World Mental Health Day: Nine Key Messages For Employers
1. Mental Health and Work are Connected
A work environment that promotes mental health offers stability, understanding, and a sense of purpose for people with mental health disorders. A negative work environment can degrade mental health and wellbeing, both of which can harm workplace productivity and job satisfaction.
2. The Workplace Can Harm Mental Health Overall
In the workplace, employees may experience things that put their mental health at risk, including:
- Discrimination
- Stigma
- Prejudice
- Poor working conditions
- Lack of support for mental health issues
- Absence of appropriate physical safety protections
- Absence of psychological and emotional protections
3. The Workplace Can Harm Individual Mental Health
An absence of adequate mental health support in the workplace can have a negative impact on:
- Self-confidence
- Enjoyment of work
- Ability to work
- Attendance at work
- Ability to find work
It’s also important to remember that when an individual works in an environment that degrades their mental health every day, the negative consequences can impact their family at home, including parents, caregivers, siblings, and others.
4. Mental Health Has an Impact on Work and Society in General
The experts at the WHO and the WFMH indicate that poor mental health in the workplace is associated with:
- Decreased performance/productivity
- Increased absenteeism
- increased staff turnover.
WHO officials estimate that close to 12 billion days of work each year are lost due to the impact of depression and anxiety.
5. Stigma Around Mental Health Disorders is a Barrier to Employment.
- People with mental health disorders say stigma and discrimination decrease their motivation to seek employment.
- Once they do find a job, stigma and discrimination can prevent them from staying on/in/at that job.
One the other hand, when a person knows a potential workplace includes awareness of stigma and training to reduce stigma and discrimination:
- It increases their motivation to apply for a job
- Once they get the job, it increases the likelihood they’ll stay in/on/at that job.
In addition, a workplace that has mental health support and protections in place, i.e. actively works to reduce workplace stigma and discrimination, creates a healthy and inclusive work environment, which increases productivity and job satisfaction.
6. Task: Accommodate Workers With Mental Health Disorders.
For workers with mental health disorders or challenges, employers should:
- Help connect them with mental health support
- Offer time off for appointments
- Help with transportation to appointments
- Promote a stress-free workplace
- Schedule reasonable hours, with adequate time off between shifts
- Schedule reasonable breaks throughout the day
- Allow time for lunch/meals
- Offer support meetings
- Support workers who request time to go to support meetings
- Schedule mental health check-ins with employees
- If an employee takes time off for mental health reasons, work them back into their duties gradually
- Providing safe, private storage for medication.
7. Task: Train Managers to Support Employee Mental Health/Support Mental Health Among Managers
Employers can help managers support mental health in the following ways:
- Provide managers with training to recognize and reduce workplace stressors
- Train managers on appropriate language around mental health
- Train managers to recognize and reduce stigma and discrimination among employees
- Offer mental health support tailored to the needs of managers, i.e. addresses the increased stress and responsibility associated with management positions
8. Priority: Collaborate with Local, State, and Federal Officials on Programs that Support Mental Health
Employers should:
- Take advantage of/participate in any public program that supports mental health
- Participate in awareness days, including:
- World Mental Health Day (October 10t)
- Suicide Prevention Day (September 10th) and Suicide Prevention Week (2nd week of September)
- Mental Health Awareness Month (May)
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Awareness Month (June)
Participating in these days and weeks sends a message to employees with mental health issues that they’re seen and understood. This promotes wellbeing and helps build a workplace that supports and prioritizes positive mental health.
9. Walk the Walk: Take Care of Your Own Mental Health
While employers work to support the mental health of their employees, they should remember to attend to their own mental health too. Employers can:
- Learn stress reduction techniques
- Seek support from friends and family
- Seek professional support
When an employer has mental health challenges themselves, it can lead to real change in a business or organization. Going through the process of diagnosis and treatment increases empathy and understanding, and often leads to significant change in attitudes toward mental health and workplace policies related to mental health.
World Mental Health Day 2024: From Home to Work and Beyond
There’s an old saying that goes something like this:
If you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything.
We can modify that for mental health:
If you don’t protect your mental health, everything else in your life might suffer.
And even further for the workplace:
If you don’t protect employee mental health, it can have a negative effect on your entire business.
If protecting physical health creates the foundation for a long life, then protecting mental health creates the foundation for a fulfilling and happy life. One thing about both physical and mental health we need to remember: they’re always there and always important. You can’t take a day off from your emotions and psychological makeup any more than you can take a day off from living in your body. Your health – physical and mental – is a primary factor in your life every single day of your life.
That’s why protecting mental health in the workplace every bit as important as protecting physical health in the workplace. We have over a century of worker safety protections mandated by law in our country, that benefit everyone: employers, employees, and customers alike. By protecting mental health in the workplace, we’re simply catching up, and realizing – with actions rather than words only – that mental health is health, and therefore, protecting mental health protects and promotes good health on all levels, and across all life domains.
