Business and mental health awareness

Mental health problems are a sad fact of our daily business today. In Australia, one in five people are likely to experience a mental health problem at some stage in their life. Awareness of mental health issues and the importance of taking care of ourselves if we are affected by them is improving. There is also a change for the better in attitudes toward having mental health problems. But sometimes there are still important issues around mental health that we better need to understand.

Many people can not unaware they might have a mental health problem. Sometimes even health professionals can have them but, because of the misconception that people in the health professions don’t get them, they can go unnoticed.

People in all walks of life and all professions can be effected by them. Everyone gets stressed, everyone can feel overwhelmed by work, family and other issues, but think it is not a mental health problem. That can be the way it goes unnoticed, even by people who know about such things. What often happens is, that business must go on at all costs. That is more important.

That can often be the case with the millions of small business owners in Australia. Like a health professional with their practice, a small business faces the same issues. Research shows that small business owners are among the most likely to be affected by mental health problems. If the owners don’t realise they may have a mental health problem and take steps to look after themselves and address the problems, their businesses suffer. Sometimes people take a short-term approach to wellness. That can be an OK thing but ‘papering over cracks and making do’ is not. At Retreat South we understand the need to keep going but our approach is to help all our clients build better coping mechanisms so that they can best deal with the everyday pressures of life.