Awareness of Mental Health in the Workplace

Mental health is the way in which people think, feel and overcome situations; it is part of their psychological and emotional wellbeing. For years the subject of mental health has been ignored, and it is only recently that there has been a concerted drive to remove the stigma associated with poor mental health and to improve awareness of it. In the 1900’s those suffering from poor mental health were often placed in Lunatic Asylums later called Mental Hospitals which became testing grounds for controversial treatments such as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and lobotomy. Enormous stigma was attached to the concept of poor mental health, and although this has persisted in some cases today, there is now a better understanding of mental health and associated conditions. The UK now invests £115 million per year on mental health research, which is 5.5% of the UK health research spend.