Depression can be treated

Sikhumbuzo Moyo

ON too many occasions, employees have had to resort to drastic measures to deal with what to them may be embarrassing to let the next person know.

Mostly, this is influenced by organisational or societal culture.

Some employees are known to have attempted or even committed suicide due to work-related challenges coupled with failure to get help or worse, being ridiculed while trying to seek help, leading to much stress and depression.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), globally, an estimated 12 billion working days are lost every year to depression and anxiety at a cost of US$1 trillion per year in lost productivity.

Safe and healthy working environments are not only a fundamental right but are also more likely to minimise tension and conflicts at work and improve staff retention, work performance and productivity. Conversely, a lack of effective structures and support at work, especially for those living with mental health conditions, can affect a person’s ability to enjoy their work and do their job well; it can undermine people’s attendance at work and even stop people from getting a job in the first place.

Medical experts say depression is a complex condition characterised by changes in thinking, mood, or behaviour that can affect anyone.

“It is influenced by a number of factors such as genetics, physiology (eg, neurotransmitters), psychology (eg, personality and temperament), gender, and the environment (eg, physical environment and social support). Depression in working populations is equally complex and the causes are not well understood. However, there is recognition that both work and non-work-related risk factors play a role such as the effects of worksites that produce excessive job stress on employees and employees’ depression effect on the worksite.”

Evidence linking work organisation with depression and other mental health problems, and with increased productivity losses, is beginning to accumulate. A number of studies of a diverse group of occupations have identified several job stressors (eg, high job demands, low job control, lack of social support in the workplace) that may be associated with depression. Although the evidence is mounting of the links between job stress and depression, there is less evidence of effective interventions to prevent depression in the workplace, a respected Bulawayo psychologist with WOTA Mental Health Consultancy told Saturday Chronicle.

He said there is therefore a need to better understand organisational practices to reduce job stress, and aspects of job design that contribute to poor mental health, so that interventions can be developed to effectively target these risk factors in the workplace.

“There are a number of strategies employers can pursue to support employees’ mental health, such as holding depression recognition screenings; placing confidential self-rating sheets in cafeterias, break rooms, or bulletin boards; promoting greater awareness through employee assistance programmes (EAP); training supervisors in depression recognition; and ensuring workers’ access to needed psychiatric services through health insurance benefits and benefit structures,” said the psychologist.

In addition to its direct medical and workplace costs, depression also increases healthcare costs and lost productivity indirectly by contributing to the severity of other costly conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and stroke. Routine, systematic clinical screening can successfully identify patients who are depressed, allowing them to access care earlier in the course of their illnesses. Research suggests that 80 percent of patients with depression will improve with treatment.

Work risks to mental health, also called psychosocial risks, may be related to job content or work schedule, specific characteristics of the workplace or opportunities for career development among other things.

WHO says risks to mental health at work can include under-use of skills or being under-skilled for work, excessive workloads or work pace, understaffing, long, unsocial or inflexible hours, lack of control over job design or workload, unsafe or poor physical working conditions, organisational culture that enables negative behaviours, limited support from colleagues or authoritarian supervision, violence, harassment or bullying, discrimination and exclusion, unclear job role, under or over-promotion, job insecurity, inadequate pay, or poor investment in career development and conflicting home or work demands.

Work depression can manifest both inside and outside of a person’s workplace, said the psychologist.

“When someone begins to act out of character, exhibiting signs or behaviours that are unusual, they may be struggling with work depression. Sometimes a previously productive worker will suddenly become inconsistent or careless. When depression remains unaddressed, an employee may demonstrate increased levels of functional impairment.”

Signs that one may be experiencing depression at work according to mental health experts, may include procrastination or difficulty meeting deadlines, lateness or missed work, irritability with co-workers, avoidance of new projects, loss of motivation, difficulty concentrating, frequent mistakes, feeling out of touch and unable to celebrate work achievements, inability to “turn off” after work, talking too much about work to family and friends, “shutting down” when the subject of work comes up.

Fantasising about quitting the job or having a new life altogether, decrease in overall productivity or quality of work, “losing time” during the workday — inability to account for what was accomplished as well as vague somatic complaints such as stomach upset, headache and just feeling tired are also tell-tale signs.

“There are many reasons why a person might feel depressed at work. As a mental health team that specialises in multicultural issues, we often see people who developed depression after being mistreated or harassed at work.

“During the past two years, we have also seen an increase in the number of people who developed depression after feeling burnout at work.”

The onus is therefore on employers to recognise and accept that depression has a potential of contributing to an organisation’s huge financial and human resources loss.

As the experts have alluded to, employers should constantly engage with employees even through workers’ representatives on matters to do with depression and each case must be dealt with differently, instead of having a template for dealing with depression or stress in the workplace.

According to medical fundis, stress, burnout and depression are related terms which are often used nearly interchangeably. It can be helpful to differentiate signs and symptoms associated with these terms where possible. Stress describes a state of mental strain that is tied to a demanding circumstance or set of circumstances.

Burnout occurs after prolonged periods of stress. Depression is a mental health condition that can occur independently or alongside stress and or burnout. — @skhumoyo2000.