Mental-Health Challenge for the NZ Business Community

28/07/2011

Mental-health promotion company, Engage Aotearoa has issued a challenge to the New Zealand business community. Nearly 50% of New Zealanders experience mental unwellness by the time they reach 75. 20% of us will experience it this year. Only 16% of people will access proper specialised treatment. Stigma and discrimination are the main reason for this. But so is a lack of knowledge about what helps and how to access it. We have one of the highest rates of suicide in the OECD, which suggests New Zealand does not have the supportive, mentally healthy community that people need to live well. Service Director Miriam Larsen-Barr says “we need a national community with the knowledge and skills to support each other – and it is time that the business community started playing their part.”

For Mental Health Awareness Week this year, Engage Aotearoa is challenging businesses to raise awareness in and around their organisation by signing on to take part in the Organisational Mental Health (OMH) Survey. This year’s Mental Health Awareness Week theme is ‘The Great Push: Investing in Mental Health. By promoting participation in their OMH Survey, organisations will raise awareness of mental health amongst their stakeholders and identify ways to improve their impact into the future. It is free to take part and the benefits are wide-reaching, both in terms of productivity and the wellbeing of the community. “The evidence suggests that companies who invest in mental health in this way do better with their staff and with their customers” says Larsen-Barr.

Businesses will be sent all of the necessary promotional materials for their survey and will have Mental Health Awareness Week to attempt to get as many responses as they can. All businesses will receive a confidential report summarising their results and how to use them. A General Report on the combined (anonymous) results of every participating business will be released in early 2012, so that every organisation in the country can formulate effective ways to improve the wellbeing of employees and the people who use their services.

If organisations from every industry took part, New Zealand would become collectively equipped with a rich understanding of where we stand as a national community, how our services are received by the people who use them and what we need to do to ensure that Aotearoa, New Zealand is a mentally healthy place to live, where everyone is able to flourish and thrive.

ENDS

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