Health And Mental Health Awareness

At the psychological level, stressful and poor working conditions can cause continuing feelings of humiliation, insecurity and worthlessness. Not having a secure understanding of the future can cause large amounts of anxiety and futility that roots high levels of fatigue from day-to-day life, therefore making everyday coping difficult. Individuals who experience high levels of prolonged stress often attempt to relieve these pressures by adopting unhealthy coping behaviours; for example, the excessive use of alcohol, smoking, and

Introduction Stress affects millions of people. One of the most common forms of stress is that related to our careers and the workplace. In today 's economic difficulty, work related stress is even more pronounced than ever before. Everyone who has ever held a job has, felt the pressure of work-related stress. Any job can have stressful elements, even if you love what you do. According to the American Psychological Association 's (APA) annual Stress in America Survey. Only 37 percent of Americans surveyed said they were doing

Psychological stressors include interpersonal conflict, role stressors, work-family conflict, and emotional labor, which is the regulation of one’s emotions to meet job or organizational demands. Another psychological stressor that may have the most influence in determining an individual’s response to a situation is a lack of control or predictability, which is related to the amount of autonomy an employee perceives in controlling how and when they perform the tasks of their job. (Landy & Conte, 2009) Stress may result in negative behavioral, psychological, or physiological consequences and the effects of multiple stressors can be cumulative. Absenteeism, accidents,

Mental Health is a state of social, emotional and psychological well-being. Mental health affects every part of our life and determines our ability to function, handle stress and make decisions. Throughout life, we have good and bad experiences which affect how we handle situations. The Mental Health Awareness and Improvement Act of 2015 was passed on September 30, 2015. The purpose of this act is to improve programs ordered by the Department of Health and Human Services to increase awareness, prevention and early identification of mental illnesses. Some challenges that affect mental health care in America include lack of knowledge regarding healthcare and insurance, lack of funding, no minimum standards, and lack of access to medication.

Many people with mental illnesses try to hide their mental illness when applying for a job. Research from Mind released on May 16, 2011 found that one in five people who had disclosed their mental illness had been sacked or forced out of their jobs. This shows how most employers don’t want to hire people with mental illness. People with mental illnesses often intimidate employers because they often believe they could be a liability. But in reality although people have a mental illness there are quite a few jobs they are easily capable of doing and we should encourage their interest in working if they are capable of performing the job correctly. According to Psychology Today there are still attitudes within most societies that view symptoms of psychopathology as threatening and uncomfortable, and these attitudes frequently foster stigma and discrimination toward people with mental health problems. People's views on mental illness have been commonly portrayed through the mainstream media in an unpleasant way. This makes life more difficult for people with mental illnesses because this leads to discrimination by others. We should all erase the portrayal of people with mental illnesses, especially employers. If we are going to make opinions of people especially with mental illnesses then we should first do research on their condition.

In the course of proper identification, evaluation, and treatment, children and adolescents suffering with mental illness can conduct positive, normal lives. Nevertheless, the devastating majority of children with mental illnesses are unsuccessfully identified and the lack of treatment or support services have led to a subordinate worth of life and violence. The Mental Health Awareness and Improvement Act of 2013 (S. 689) is an inclusive bill proposed to address the extensive issue of mental health. By strongly considering the United States’ struggle against mental illness and school violence, as well as utilizing theoretical constructs to examine the Senate’s bill, a social worker can develop a more holistic perspective that can productively integrate practical insights reached from a variety of different points of view.

Integrating new policies that require employers to treat someone suffering from mental illness the same way they treat someone suffering with physical illness has not come easily. A history of overlooking mental illness, or mistaking it for what has often been called “stress” in the workplace makes the process of helping to change the past negative thoughts often associated with mental illness a slow process. In essence, these new policies are requiring organizations to change the way think, which is not always easy given decades of false and misleading information about mental illness.

“Mental health problems and illnesses account for approximately 30% of short – and long-term disability claims and are rated one of the top three drivers of such claims by more than 80% of Canadian employers.” (Thorpe, K. & Chenier, L., 2011)

Stress has been linked to hypertension, heart attacks, diabetes, asthma, chronic pain, allegeries, headaches, skin disorders, cancer, immune system weakness and decrease blood count (Cummings et al, 2005). It has also been linked to an increase risk of alcoholism and drug use. High levels of stress can lead to higher absenteeism, larger staff turnover and low productivity. The symptoms are evident in the quantitative data, with an

Currie, D (2010). Introduction to Human Resource Management. 2nd ed. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel Development. 293

It is evident that the relationship between work stress and mental health has been established by numerous research studies. As discussed in Koesky (1993), the fact that all jobs involve some degree of stress makes it all the more alarming as to the level of stress experienced by individuals working in the human services. That is, given that these individuals are heavily involved in the lives of others, they often develop mental health symptoms that are characteristic of work-related stressors. In fact, “This involvement, which requires caring commitment and empathic responding, places workers at risk for a special type of strain commonly referred to as 'burnout'” (Koesky, 1993, p. 319).

We spend much of daily lives working. In fact, Americans spend about eight-times as many hours working as they do eating and drinking (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2013). Approximately seven in ten Americans report that they experience symptoms of stress (Anderson, Belar, Breckler, Nordal, Ballard, Bufka, Bossolo & Bethune, 2013). Stress is elicited by a variety of psychological stimulus associated with our jobs, our residences, our social interactions, and the activities we engage in (p. 249, Franken, 2007). Many Americans live with the burden of an unsatisfying job as well as a stressful workplace. An online survey of 1,848 people in the United States, conducted by the American Psychological Association, found that 74 percent of

Hayes & Weathington (2007) cited the “National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health” as saying that job stress has developed into

Stress is a common issue that faces every human being in different times. Stress can be caused by many factors, but one of the main reasons is work which is called occupational stress or work-related stress. Job stress does not only affect the employees’ performance within an organization, but also it affects their general health. Stress has become a challenge for employers now because high level stress results in low productivity, increased absenteeism and other problems like alcoholism, drug abuse and hypertension (Ahmad, Mohamed. 2017). It became a major problem for employers especially in developing countries where they don’t realize the importance of work-life balance and the impact of stress on the productivity level and the job

The lack of acknowledgment of the declination of mental health has caused many issues with not only the efficiency of the companies themselves but also the overall health of the employees. The pressure that is put on employees in the workplace goes to demonstrate the