Ensuring Therapies for Employees Can Ensure Mentally Healthy Workforce, My Safe Place shares why and how.

It is a no-denying fact that an organisation’s biggest asset is its team, the employees, the people. A sound and healthy workforce is an asset for an organisation and can help them touch the heights. Hence, ensuring a healthy workforce is one of the good practices organisations should follow. And while organisations do consider the wellness of the employees as a primary constraint, the association of health generally remains restricted to physical health. So, to explore how organisations can ensure a mentally healthy workplace we spoke to Aarushi Luthra, the Co-Founder of My Safe Place. Among the other mentally healthy provisions, she discussed how ensuring therapies for employees can ensure a mentally healthy workforce.

“With WFH coming into play since the beginning of the pandemic, the boundaries between work and the rest of our lives have become extremely blurred. WFH has led to increased stress, zoom fatigue, languishing, loneliness, and a host of other emotional issues brought on by the pandemic. And with the opening of offices, the situation has not become any better”, said Aarushi, co-founder of My Safe Place. My Safe Place is an organisation that provides mental health support to people and also has wellness programs that organisations can introduce for their employees.

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According to Oracle’s 2020 AI@Work Study, in India, 84 per cent of people have reportedly experienced more stress and/or anxiety at work than any year before. The same report mentions that 92 per cent of Indians find talking about their mental health issues with a robot more than their managers.

Business Today quotes the Head of HCM Applications Asia Pacific at Oracle, Shaakun Khanna saying, “People in India are more at ease with technology. Also, because there is a stigma associated with talking to a robot, individuals are more comfortable doing so. People enjoy interacting with robots because they are seen as neutral, offer rapid answers to health issues, and do not pass judgement.”

mental wellbeing

So, it’s an undeniable fact that the stigma around mental health has not yet allowed people to come out and acknowledge their mental health struggles, and that’s somewhere because there’s a lack of any workplace health and wellness program at the organisational level that could help the employee have the solution for their mental health struggles.

. Amid that, the fear of judgement refrains them from opening up. Obviously, different organisations have different provisions, yet the physical health issues that can be identified physically surpass the unseen wellbeing issues, the mental ones.

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Giving your employees access to a variety of tools and a secure environment to talk about their thoughts to show that you care about their mental health is the first and foremost thing an organisation should ensure. And apart from that, as Aarushi had suggested, ensuring therapies for employees can be a solution.

How are therapies (with a trained psychologist) helpful?

Therapy with a trained psychologist offers a safe space to help people understand and cope with their feelings. It can help employees develop coping strategies to manage distress, learn how to make healthier choices, increase self-awareness and improve interpersonal relationships, leading to a happier workforce.

There is no doubt that therapy is helpful, “however, one of the biggest barriers to seeking therapy (in addition to stigma) is the price. While there are numerous free resources available, therapy remains unaffordable for most people, which prevents them from reaching out for help, even when they really need it.” Aarushi added.

Ensuring therapies for employees

Ensuring therapies for employees means making therapy free, making therapy accessible. Providing free therapy for employees is the first step that shows that the organisation considers the mental wellbeing of an employee is important. This can certainly make the employee open about their condition because they will know that the organisation is ready to help with a solution. “Providing therapy simply ensures that there’s an encouragement to seek therapy, which itself means breaking the initial barrier, allowing them to ‘test’ it for themselves and take the first step towards improving their mental well-being.”

Aarushi concluded by quoting the data from a University of Oxford research that found that happy employees are 13% more productive. So not only does it help with happier employees, investing in employees’ mental wellbeing can lead to improved outcomes for the organisation. And hence, ensuring mental health for employees should Mental Health Support for your employees will give you the highest returns on the investment!”