In Europe

Tomorrow I am attending the board meeting of EAEF. Its a very interesting board with 6 countries represented on the board. Were looking at the role of EAP across Europe, and more importantly the standards that EAP's should meet. Not an easy task considering the different versions of EAP in all the countries. This may be made easier through bigger providers growing networks where consistent clinical and operating standards can operate and be driven from the centre.

Stress at the top

Horta-Osario steps aside as boss of Lloyds TSB due to fatigue. It's a sign of the times that bosses are affected by the sheer pressure of work. The share price fall as a result of the news indicates the fragility of business and bottom line effect of pressure.

It's curious that this announcement was made, some may say brave. It would have been easy to create an alternative reason for the departure.The real test for business will be seen upon his return, will there be a stigma attached? Will he be seen as weak or honest?

EAPA Changing

Today EAPA announced its plans to change its bye laws that allow a change in board structure. Moving away from its regional representation, it will appoint a board based upon strategic skill. Further it change how the board is selected, moving from a nomination and vote system to selection by a nominations committee headed by the immediate past chair. The construction of the board will include three non US directors and three US based directors, all at large

This is a brave move by the organisation and signals a shift in emphasis to outside the USA, where the growth potential for EAP is greatest.

In our current climate, EAP has never been more important to organisations in supporting staff. This move does indicate that EAPA wants to continue to be the global voice of EAP.

Still the stigma

It's really frustrating that organisations remain indifferent to mental health absence. Frequently it is line managers that won't accept other peoples mental ill health, it seems on the basis that I am resilient, I can cope, therefore everyone else should. This is in contradiction to physical illness that can be seen and accepted. I'm really not sure what the next step is in gaining acceptance of equal status for mental health issues, certainly organisations need to more

Judging

This week I had the pleasure to be asked to join a shortlisting panel to judge mental health journalist of the year. Firstly the people I was with were excellent, excellent knowledge of real mental health problems, with some of them users of service. I was also struck by the passion and commitment shown to improving the perception of mental ill health.

We judged radio and print media journalists, 19 in all. To prepare I had to read the submission articles, with some entries have several articles each. Also listen to radio broadcasts. I hadn't realised that there was good reporting on mental health in radio, and it was good to hear the information and debate. The reporting was really good and varied. In written journalism there was quite a range, with some excellent technical and informative writing. What I also saw was some top class writing that tackled difficult subjects. One in particular was outstanding for me and I really hope they win.

Long may good reporting and writing on mental health continue, I think I need to up my game.

In the same boat

Recently I went to a conference in London held by Employee Assistance European Forum. The theme of the conference was Resilience, which is of course a hot topic right now. Attendees came from 23 countries from both inside and outside Europe.

In a strange way it was heartening to see that things are tough across the world, and there is a need to be resilient both in work and outside.

What worries me is that this level of relentless pressure and anxiety will become the norm for us all. This has no good outcomes for work, for families and society. The role of mental ill health support will become greater as people buckle.

Is there no hope?

I went to an event today where some eminent advisors were briefing on sickness absence and how to better manage it. The task was set by our government and they have spent a significant amount of time, and I expect money, looking at this difficult issue. It all started very well with statistics, comments on the complexity of benefits, employer and the state. We moved on to discuss the disincentives for employers. Seemed at last this might gat some real traction. In the QA session somebody asked about stigma associated to mental health. To my shock and horror the advisor denied that this existed, insisting that now we are able to talk about stress openly. Clearly they don't understand the range of mental health conditions that are prevalent. That not being bad enough, they went on to admit that they didn't understand the statistic of 1 in 4 people suffering from a mental health condition. It's not the statistic they do not understand but the fact that so many people could actually have mental health problems. Even more staggering they then went on to ask why people can't cope any more, all the talk of resilience these days would appear to be some sort of weakness in people. It seems "pull yourself together" is alive and well.

Mental Health Week

This has been an interesting week for mental health. The charity Mind has been superbly active in promoting the issues around disclosure of mental health conditions in the workplace and the stigma attached. It started with some excellent BBC coverage, during which John Binns talked about his experience within Deloitte. This was a great start to the week-long event that ends today. Cleverly Mind have used press, Facebook and Twitter to generate conversation. Using a character @the-elephant_ they created an interesting dialogue with people around the UK about their experiences in living with mental ill health, and disclosure.

On Tuesday Mind invited a number of interested parties to a summit at AXA's office in London. During the event the challenges and issues faced by employers and employees was discussed. Several things emerged and will likely be followed up in future events.

Disclosure is not easy, and mental ill health is a very personal and individual thing. We cannot view this issue as a homogenous group of people with similar issues and problems.

People are forced into hiding their true status and may even over compensate in performance and attendance so as not to get found out.

The issues are the same in large corporates as well as SME's. However within SME's the management of mental ill health conditions is not always formalised but is equally good and bad as large corporates.

Managers are ill informed about what to say and do when confronted with a mental health condition, therefore its no wonder they sometimes get it wrong. There is a need for more training, for openness and positive dialogue.

GP's will often have little idea of what adjustments can be made within a workplace and may make inappropriate recommendations that are unworkable. This is frustrating for the employee and employer.

Culture change is happening but remains slow and we all have a part to play in changing this. The coming out of a mental health condition is daunting for the individual, and we all need to think about how we might react.

Today I am taking part in a live discussion on the Guardian website to discuss this issue.
http://t.co/8Na89Mj via @guardian

Financial Counselling and Emotional Intelligence

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending a health and wellbeing conference in Birmingham. Moreover I was asked to speak twice and to chair a whole day of sessions. It is always good to be asked to do these sort of things, and being a chair is more than just keeping to time. Although in my speaking I did see some chairing that was really quite intense over time management! For me the responsibility is to make the speakers feel at ease, be interested and to always ask questions. I do this to get debate going and to make the audience feel they can ask questions too. It is always odd to me that people attend conferences and leave with questions unanswered, or see nothing in a presentation to ask questions about. I presented on Financial Counselling in the workplace. This is an area I have been researching for a couple of years now, and although not an authority, I would like to think I know much more than most about. I read quite a number of papers on the subject at the beginning of my interest a couple of years ago. It's mostly from the USA, but still has relevance. In the UK employers do need to understand that employees can and will be distracted by personal financial problems, and that for many their understanding of financial issues and choices is poor, and that finding information and advice is difficult. Here is where good employers can help, its simple really.

My other presentation was about Emotional Intelligence in Stress Management. This is not an expert area for me, I have read enough to understand how it could be used. My proposition was that "traditional" stress management courses are somewhat bland, and do not seem to have moved on very much. I was designing these 10 years ago and little has changed. If we used EI within a resilience model of coping, it would help managers to manage themselves and others better, and thus become better managers. Sensitivity to feelings and emotions doesn't seem to be a comfortable discussion are in the UK, yet research shows that this makes for better managers and better performance. This approach has to be better for business than tick-box stress management. I had about 15 questions after my presentation, and people came up to me to say it was one of the better presentations. So I had some agreement on a way forward, thats good to know. My position was arrived at only by thinking more about how I might combine EI with stress management. What else is out there that we could creatively combine to assist with health and wellbeing?

Dame Carol was rather a disappointment

Last week I attended the Work Foundation event featuring Dame Carol Black and Prof Cary Cooper. It was both enjoyable and disappointing, don't get me wrong WF always put on excellent events. Stephen Bevan is one of the most knowledgeable people in the health industry. What I felt was that Dame Carol trotted out the same stuff that we have seen for some time, nothing new. She did mention that there was going to be a focus on SME's. I really cant see how the well-being agenda is going to be easily swallowed by this sector. What was really disappointing was that when I asked Dame Carol about incentives for employers she waffled back, and had no idea about the taxation treatment of EAP's. Considering she did talk about the "non medicalisation" of life events and worry/stress you would think that she would know about the role EAP's play in this area, and indeed the management of absence. It seems we have a long way to go to promote EAP in certain circles. At least Cary Cooper knew about EAP and its positive role. I did like his view that we don't need any more research into the causes of stress! and that managers are a significant cause of stress for subordinates.