‘Blue Monday’ may not be supported by hard evidence, but depression and other mental health issues are a real concern in the workplace.
Before 2005 no-one talked about Blue Monday.
The reason for this is because the idea that the third Monday in the month of January, later dubbed ‘Blue Monday’, was invented in a press release 15 years ago. The method used to develop the concept has since come under a lot of scrutiny, but despite this, a lot of people do suffer with their mental health during the winter.
According to research conducted by pollster YouGov, as many as 29 per cent of UK adults may suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). SAD is characterized by persistent low mood, irritability, and feeling sleepy during the day.
Managing mental health in the workplace
Although feelings of despondency and symptoms of depression can peak in the winter months, it is important to remember that mental health issues can have a real impact on workplaces all year round.
Last year, the Health and Safety Executive reported that at any one time, a third of workers in the UK suffer from depression, stress and anxiety. In 2017/18 this led to 15.4million lost working days.
As well as a loss of productivity, employees who are suffering from mental health issues such as depression or stress may be at a higher risk of being involved in an accident. For some time now, RoSPA, has recognized that supporting people with mental health issues at work is a key challenge for health and safety managers. In 2016 RoSPA published a policy position on this subject.
You can look out for your employees or colleagues by learning to spot the signs of common mental health disorders such as stress or depression:
Loss of self-confidence and self-esteem
Sadness that doesn’t go away
Tiredness/loss of energy
Difficulty concentrating
anxiety
Feelings of hopelessness
Avoiding other people, even close friends or family
Sleep problems
Feelings of guilt or worthlessness
Loss of appetite
Self-harm
Suicidal thoughts.
Mental health charity MIND has further advice on how to spot mental health issues at work.
In addition to learning to spot the signs that someone may be suffering, it is important to put in place practices that will help develop a supportive workplace culture:
Risk Assessments
In consultation with safety representatives, risk assessments should be reviewed in such cases to determine whether additional measures are necessary to cope with any potential safety performance impairments due to stress (whether occupational or non-occupational in origin).
Training
Training programs for managers and safety representatives on how to deal with stress should not only address the identification, assessment and management of occupational stress and stressors, but how to tackle the safety impact of non-occupational stress on key staff.
support
Staff experiencing stress need re-assurance that any adjustments to their work for safety reasons will not lead to unfair discrimination. Similarly, organizations need to have arrangements in place to counsel support, and rehabilitate staff who have suffered mental trauma as a result of accidental involvement, whether as a casualty or a witness.
For more advice about managing mental health in the workplace please visit the RoSPA website: www.rospa.com/Occupational-Safety/Advice/Health/Stress
In 2018, RoSPA developed the RoSPA Awards Ambassador scheme, aiming to create a network of individuals who champion RoSPA’s objective to drive up health and safety standards via the RoSPA’s International Health and Safety Awards. With more than 27-years of experience in OS&H management, and over half of those spent working overseas, Stephen Storey, who is based in India, was well placed to be RoSPA’s first international awards ambassador. We catch up with him to see what this means for him.
Stephen Story has spent fifteen years working overseas in OS&H management in the Middle East and Asia. He is currently corporate EHS head for Larsen & Toubro (L&T Heavy Civil) in India.
Stephen is one of those on the frontline. His personal goal is to drive up standards across the board in a country where safety culture is not as mature as say Europe or the US. In his work with L&T, he is in charge of the safety and wellbeing of thousands of employees and contractors working in high-risk environments in heavy infrastructure sectors such as tunnels, rail, roads, bridges, nuclear, hydropower, defense, ports and harbors .
The Indian health and safety scene presents its own particular challenges. More than 22 official languages are spoken in the country, and it also has a transient workforce which poses a problem for those trying to instil good OS&H practice and create a safer working environment. However, Larsen & Toubro have worked hard to overcome these obstacles and use the RoSPA Health & Safety Awards to demonstrate a massive commitment to health and safety with consistent entries into these international awards for almost 20 years, with over 100 entries across Larsen & Toubro in 2019.
“The workforce is highly mobile and seasonal and this produces a large, quick turnover of labour, which comes mainly from the agricultural sector.
“Workers generally have very little experience or understanding of complex construction and engineering work methods, and the correct safety behaviors that require implementation to enable accident prevention.
“Making that change and developing those skill sets in a small window of time – before the workforce leaves the projects to take up jobs outside the construction industry in their native region – is a big challenge.”
So how is Stephen tackling these issues?
He is attempting to implement and grow a safety culture, not only through his day-to-day work on the ground but through making a firm commitment to employees and by seeking ways to further expand his influence and promote best safety practices.
stephen regularly works with the National Safety Council of India and the International Labor Organization, among others, and every January Larsen & Toubro hold a safety month which reaches thousands of stakeholders including employees, contractors, suppliers, JV partners, and clients. With themes such as ’embrace digital for a safer workplace’, which included installing safety apps, including safety inspection and near-miss apps on smartphones used in the workplace, and employees taking part in virtual reality construction safety training, it is clear that Stephen has his finger on the pulse of all the latest developments and technologies in safety.
“We also focused on third-party training from international bodies in crane management, operations and rigging, and scaffolding inspection and erection, and ran occupational health campaigns on heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and yoga fitness.”
In 2018, Stephen was chosen to be RoSPA’s very first international ambassador award.
“It is an honor to be approached to support such a prestigious global brand in safety,” Stephen says. “In accepting the role as ambassador it gives me an opportunity to give something back to the occupational safety and health industry and support RoSPA in its overall vision, mission and beliefs.”
Stephen intends to encourage more organizations in India, through his networks, to enter the RoSPA Health & Safety Awards and assimilate the entry process into their safety strategies, as Larsen & Toubro has done.
“Having the opportunities as I do to be invited to talk on various boards, at conferences in India and Asia more widely, and to government and industry forums, I can speak to them of the values an organization can gain from simply entering the awards process and understanding how they can improve and eventually be recognized as RoSPA winners.”
If you are interested in becoming part of the RoSPA Awards, visit www.rospa.com/awards and find out more about our internationally recognized award scheme.
Myopia, aka nearsightedness, is extremely common and can start in childhood or young adults. Over time it can lead to early-onset cataracts, retinal detachment, and glaucoma. MedPageToday has an eye-opening article on treatments that can prevent myopia progression and complications. For example:
Common evidence-based treatments that offer both statistically significant and clinically meaningful efficacy include daytime multifocal soft contact lenses (MFSCL), overnight orthokeratology (ortho-k), and topical low dose atropine (LDA). Novel spectacle lenses also showed a promising myopia-inhibiting effect, although with limited availability in the US at the current moment. On average, these options slow myopia progression by 30-70% compared to conventional single vision glasses or contacts. With properly selected early interventions, not only the development of myopia stabilizes at younger ages, the endpoint of the progression is also much lower, resulting in significantly lower risk of complications. Furthermore, with lower levels of myopia at stabilization, many myopic patients could be good candidates for refractive surgery with given corneal thickness.
I get the impression from the article than the treatments need to be started in childhood.
Pondering of getting into the RoSPA Well being & Security Awards for the primary time? On the face of it, it may appear fairly daunting. “Which a part of the group ought to I enter?Have we obtained sufficient proof to assist the ten key efficiency questions?” And so forth…
In any case, there’s loads of arduous work concerned getting into an internationally acknowledged and extremely prestigious reward scheme, so to make life a bit of simpler, we put collectively this little infographic to indicate you simply how easy it’s to start your awards journey.
Altering greatest apply is on the coronary heart of the RoSPA Awards Community, so to this finish, we have additionally created a sequence of weblog posts to assist first time entrants…
The following deadline for the 2020 RoSPA Awards is April 30, 2020so be sure you register at www.rospa.com/awards and make 2020 a yr to recollect.
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Core messaging in the course of the COVID -19 pandemic has centered on the function every citizen performs in bringing the scenario underneath management. Good hygiene and social distancing have been spoken about extensively and it’s acknowledged that the latter is the first threat management measure.
The function of key staff has additionally been extensively mentioned, resembling the worth of NHS employees and care staff, the function of educators and the speedy transition to house education. And as I sit right here at house serious about the 27million households within the UK on lockdown, and the impression on individuals and their communities, I can hear a well-known sound; that of one other very important entrance line service – the refuse lorry.
As we speak it is the brown bin (backyard waste) then subsequent week the inexperienced bin (basic waste) adopted by the blue bin (combined recyclables). A driver plus two crew, who’re strolling on the beneficial “socially-distanced” measure of two meters aside, loading the bins individually and placing them again on the pavement. No homeowners in proof, so no points about social distancing there both… however then they soar again within the cab.
The Waste Trade Security and Well being (WISH) Discussion board, which works with that trade’s key stakeholders throughout the UK, has lately launched its COVID-19 and Waste Administration Actions pointers. These assist us all determine how we will every make a contribution to lowering the chance to refuse assortment staff, who let’s face it present a significant public well being operate. Simply take into consideration the impression of failing to gather refuse.
For everybody the message “Catch it, Bin it, Kill it” is punchy, nevertheless, if anybody in your family has or is suspected to have COVID-19 signs, refuse staff want you to perform a little bit extra to assist defend them: double-bag your waste, and wait 72 hours earlier than placing it into the bin.
For private and non-private sector organizations concerned in waste assortment, the rules, that are being reviewed weekly, show you how to to handle your small business inside this era of change.
Nevertheless, the WISH pointers current all employers – whether or not concerned within the waste trade or not – an fascinating case research on how one can safely handle those who have to proceed working in proximity to others, regardless of social distancing guidelines.
As a part of our webinar sequence on the worldwide occupational well being and security response to the COVID outbreak, I will be talking to Chris Jones, who led on the event of the rules, and Adam Hinson, the pinnacle of compliance at RoSPA Award winner Acumen Waste, to seek out out what we will all be taught from the waste trade as we attempt to maintain all of our workers protected and wholesome.
The webinar is free to RoSPA members and award winners. See www.rospa.com/Occasions/RoSPA-Webinars for extra particulars.
