Being in the mental health profession comes with some added stress for the workers and issues such as secondary trauma, compassion fatigue or burnout are and continue to be the order of the day. Unfortunately, this comes with the territory of the job.
The pandemic has brought a lot of challenges that most of us had never experienced before. I remember reading an article that mentioned that over 65% of frontline professionals were experiencing burnout before the pandemic.
Sadly, these statistics are expected to be higher with the pandemic.
It isn’t a wonder that during one of my visits to the bank, the bank agent asked me a question that I get too often, “How do you deal with all the traumatic stories you hear at work?” He went on to talk about how his father, a first responder dealt with stress from the job and the kind of impact those stories had on their family. He was right, many mental health professionals may not talk about some of the secondary stressors at work. There is a lot of expectation for them to deal with these challenges and work as if they are immune to the issues relating to the people they support.
Many companies promise a work-life balance but is that something afforded to mental health employees? Is it even feasible in some work environments? How many of these workers could say they have a work-life balance throughout the pandemic? The pressures that come from both their personal and professional lives can sometimes be overwhelming. A professional who can’t seem to get it all together in their personal life might be seen as a failure at work or vice versa. The stress can sometimes cause some of these professionals to turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms such as using substances like alcohol or drugs.
Behind the qualifications and work experiences are also human beings who might be impacted by the care they provide. The pandemic is bringing into light some of the challenges affecting these professionals. It wasn’t out of the ordinary to hear a professional walk out of a job during the most challenging season of the world. Like a frontline worker who walked out after a 25-year career.
Investing in employees’ mental health is vital for your business and clients
How do we create balance for mental health professionals struggling with secondary trauma, compassion fatigue, or burnout? Most organizations offer Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) to help cope with these challenges but are these resources enough?
Are organizations creating health and wellness programs catered to their employees? Are systems in place when it comes to employee wellness in the mental health field?
- How many board rooms are spending time creating mental health wellness programs for mental health workers? There is a need to create programs to cope with these challenges. Recently on social media, a lady thanked her employer for offering an employee family caregiver program which afforded her the time to take care of her ailing mother. How many companies have those kinds of resources? I will let you answer that question.
- Unfortunately due to retaliation and ethical issues, many workers will not voice their concerns about issues such as compassion fatigue or burnout to their employers or to the same healthcare system they provide care for. So how are these employees supposed to stay sane to take care of you?
- The first place we need to start is not to be in denial about the impact of providing care, we need to acknowledge that there are issues that can come up with this kind of work and then design wellness programs that are employee-friendly.
The pandemic is expected to increase mental health issues. We definitely need to make discussions around employees’ mental health a priority in our board rooms.
Implementing employee-friendly wellness programs is vital for productivity and efficiency in the workplace.