The World Health Organisation recognises #WorldMentalHealthDay on 10th October every year and the theme of 2022’s World Mental Health Day is ‘Make mental health and wellbeing for all a global priority‘.
As the factors, triggers and pressures that adversely impact our mental health continue to result in mental health problems it is essential that mental health is treated on a par with physical health.
This year, in the UK, it has been reported that 1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem in their lifetime. Suicide has also become the biggest killer of men under 50 years old. Creating awareness around mental health and talking to others, about our problems, has never been more important!
The Mental Health Foundation (MHF) continue to lobby national and local government to prioritise reducing the factors known to pose a risk to people’s mental health, enhancing those known to protect it and creating the conditions needed for people to thrive. There is a continuing focus on prevention of mental ill-health and MHF call for individuals and wider society to do as much as possible to assist.
For the 1,077,884 organisations that claim conformity against the Quality Management System standard #ISO9001:2015, Clause 7.1.4 requires those organisations to provide an environment which considers social and psychological human factors to enable conformity of its products and services, whilst reducing stress and emotionally protecting the people doing work under its control.
For the 294,420 organisations that claim conformity against the Occupational Health & Safety Management System standard #ISO45001:2018, Clause 6.1 requires those organisations to identify psychological hazards and manage associated risks, related to how work is organized and social factors (including workload, work hours, victimization, harassment, and bullying), as well as human factors. The recently published #ISO45003:2021 document gives guidelines for managing psychosocial risk within an occupational health and safety (OH&S) management system based on #ISO45001 and is free in a read only format here.
World Mental Health Day is also an opportunity for us all to talk about and raise awareness of the importance of taking care of our mental health and how to do that, and how to get help should we be struggling.
If you or someone you love needs to get help, please find details on services and organisations that offer help using the link
