Mental health is often ignored in public health discussions in Africa, but its economic impact is staggering. There is an urgent need for companies to prioritize and support the mental health needs of their employees. Cynthia Kodou, a Ghanaian human resources expert, told DW that she has strict advice for employees about protecting their mental health at work.
“I say to all of my staff and everyone else: What you’re chasing is money. Why don’t you want to take time off? If you quit today, you won’t be paid in the graveyard of 2020. “Either way,” she says. Her warning is backed up by alarming statistics about the mental health of people across Africa.
World Health Organization (WHO) figures suggest that the African region has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. In 2019, it was measured at 11.2 per 100,000 people, compared to the global average of 9 per 100,000. The WHO African region has the highest male suicide rate of all WHO regions at 18 per 100,000 people, compared to the global average of 12.4 per 100,000.
About 77% of suicides occurred in low- and middle-income countries, with Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique, Central African Republic, Botswana, Eritrea, Cameroon and Ivory Coast having particularly high suicide rates. Beyond the statistics, mental health in the workplace is largely ignored, said Patience Osekure, a psychotherapist in Accra, Ghana. “For employees, productivity is affected, it affects their health, it affects other aspects of their work,” she told DW.
Focusing on prioritizing mental health at work, WHO’s World Mental Health Day 2024 highlights how poor working conditions and work-related stress can worsen existing mental health conditions. did. WHO is calling for global action to protect and promote mental health at work and to ensure that people with mental health conditions are treated fairly and do not face discrimination, prejudice or violations of their human dignity. emphasized the need.
Employees rarely operate at optimal levels
According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 12 billion working days are lost each year to depression and anxiety, resulting in $1 trillion in lost productivity each year. “Global uncertainty and anxiety are so great that burnout is a common problem in the workplace,” Osekure said. “We’re talking about your judgment, your decisions, your choices, your lifestyle, all of which obviously impact how you function.”
Mr Osekure added that employees spend a lot of time in the work environment and must prioritize their mental health at work. “We also need to become emotionally literate, understand how we’re feeling, and even have the vocabulary to express our feelings,” Osekure says.
He said line managers and supervisors can become “obsessed” with increasing the workload of their best employees in hopes of increasing productivity. “These are people who want to do what’s best for the organization because it’s important to their pride,” Kodou said. “And they just keep going. Some of the greatest talent ever has left this world, and it’s all because they couldn’t rest.”
There is a lack of treatment avenues
Kodou and Osekure agree that even in a competitive job market where every paycheck counts so much, it would be helpful for companies to look out for their employees. “As human resources, we need to properly plan the deployment of our employees,” Kodou says. “We’ve created a culture where people feel like they have to take on more and more just to prove themselves. We’re trained not to complain. We They are trained to say, “It’s okay, I give it to God, it’s going to get better.” ”
This includes allowing overworked employees to take time off to improve their mental health without fear of losing their jobs. According to Osekure, this will increase worker productivity. “That employee will start again with heart-breaking energy, because no matter what challenges this person was going through during that period, they were able to solve them,” she said. He told DW.
If you are suffering from severe mental strain or suicidal thoughts, do not hesitate to seek professional help. Information about where you can get such help, no matter where you live in the world, can be found at the following website: https://www.befrienders.org
