Mental Health Treatment

The Shaw Trust reported in 2010 that only 2 in 10 employers have a reactive or proactive mental health policy to support staff with mental ill health. What role does leadership have in addressing this challenging issue?

Employee mental well-being should be an integral part of the boardroom agenda, on a par with physical health. Leaders should insist that regular monitoring of progress or issues is reported to the board. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has found that 70% of employee mental health problems are either directly caused by work or by a combination of work and home. In light of this, there simply is no excuse for this not be a mainstream issue for leaders to address. By proactively managing mental well-being in the workplace, leaders are not only dealing with their legal and ethical responsibilities, they are also looking after their bottom line as well. Absenteeism and presenteeism are responsible for losing British organisations billions of pounds, so how can this subject be ignored.

All employers should include safeguarding mental well-being into their standard operations, particularly when employees and/or organisations are embarking on change processes, which can be and are very challenging times for everyone. Training from the leadership down in proactively managing mental well-being, including offering additional support to staff or simply leading by example, is essential. Safety net support such as coaching and occupational health needs to be incorporated into health and well-being policies. Continue Reading

Dissociative Personality Disorder is a psychiatric condition which involves the sufferer experiencing multiple distinct personality states. The personality of the person becomes dissociated into two or more distinct personalities, each of which becomes dominant and controls the behavior from time to time. Each personality has its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the world. The dissociative personality disorder was formerly called multiple personality disorder or split personality. About 3% of patients of psychiatric hospitals have dissociative personality disorder, and it occurs in women nine times more often than in men.

There is no proven specific cause for dissociative personality disorder, but theoretically it is linked with overwhelming stress, traumatic antecedents, insufficient childhood nurturing and childhood trauma. Most patients with this disorder complain of child abuse such as physical abuse or sexual abuse, especially during early to mild childhood. According to psychological theory, severe physical or sexual or psychological trauma in the childhood by a primary caregiver leads to development of dissociative personality disorder. When the child is traumatized by the primary caregiver, the memory and awareness of the event gets split in the child’s mind to carry on the relationship. Those memories and feelings go into subconscious mind which will be experienced later in the form of other personality. In future, personality dissociation keeps recurring whenever traumatic event happens and the process becomes coping mechanism for the individual during stressful circumstances. Continue Reading

Having grown up in a ski resort town, I was one of those people who wanted to become an admired athlete. The rigors of being a hopeful Olympic athlete training to make the Olympic team encompasses much more than the obvious, like possessing physical ability. It goes beyond physical strength. It goes beyond diet. It goes all the way to sacrifice and mental toughness.

The first key is getting mentally ready. People discover that changing their habits is difficult. Thus, the mental aspect of being ready to stick with an intense training program is the first thing to overcome. Getting into excellent shape, eating well-balanced meals and taking excellent care of your body is a daily practice of knowing you can do it. It all starts with believing you can.

Often we don’t feel like doing a workout. When that happens, we have to push ourselves to get into it. When exercise feels like a drain, it’s ok to listen to your body, but you will have to dig deep to understand what the body is going through and move beyond that.

The second key is making the mental decision to act. The only way to get something done in the universe is to act. Action is what makes things happen. You can tell your friends, “I’m going to get in good enough shape to make the Olympics.” However, unless you actually work out, it won’t happen. You have to take the time to learn to do what is needed and then apply those lessons – otherwise it won’t happen. Thinking of taking action is a good idea, but it takes the first step after the idea to create the action. Put that action into play and see it in your mind’s eye. Continue Reading