March On Stress

New Mental Health at Work Guidelines from World Health Organisation

Added on the 28th September 2022

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has published new guidelines on mental health at work – including a recommendation for mental health training for managers – and March on Stress is delighted that its evidence-based services strongly support these recommendations.

The WHO guidelines published today, Wednesday 28 September 2022, highlight the following key points for organisations:

1. Prevent work-related mental health conditions through psychosocial risk management which includes using organisational interventions to reshape working conditions, cultures and relationships.
2. Protect and promote mental health at work, especially through training and interventions that improve mental health literacy, strengthen skills to recognise and act on mental health conditions at work, and empower workers to seek support.
3. Support workers with mental health conditions to participate fully and equitably in work through reasonable accommodations, return-to-work programmes and supported employment initiatives.
4. Create an enabling environment with cross-cutting actions to improve mental health at work through leadership, investment, rights, integration, participation, evidence and compliance.

The guidelines - which are expected to be valid for a period of five years – recommend that training for managers to support their workers’ mental health should be delivered to improve managers’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviours for mental health and to improve workers’ help-seeking behaviours.

March on Stress Business Development Director, Georgina Godden, said: “We are delighted that the training and services we offer at March on Stress support these valuable WHO guidelines. We have been working for some time to deliver different forms of evidence-based managerial training to meet organisational needs, from our leadership awareness sessions focusing on mental health in the workplace, trauma awareness for leaders working in trauma-exposed workplaces, and REACTMH® (active listening conversations) to train leaders and supervisors to have psychologically informed conversations.”

Importantly, as the WHO guidelines identify, the intention of this training is not to turn managers into mental health care providers: after completing training, managers cannot and should not diagnose or “treat” mental disorders. Rather, managers should be able to know when and how to direct supervisees to appropriate sources of support and should be willing and able to advocate for action on mental health at work.

Georgina Godden, Business Development Director, continued: “Additionally, March on Stress REACTMH training, as well as our peer support training through StRaW® (Sustaining Resilience at Work) and TRiM (Trauma Risk Management), supports the guidance for workers to be trained in mental health literacy and awareness, to improve trainees’ mental health-related knowledge and attitudes at work.

“The guidelines also report no evidence for formal psychological screening carried out by employers, again in keeping with our approach at March on Stress in recommending that mental health conditions cannot be screened out. Instead we support the use of psychological monitoring for ‘at risk’ workers run independently through the March on Stress Wellness service, enabling a regular and proactive check in for those working in difficult conditions or locations.”

March on Stress Managing Director, Professor Neil Greenberg, was a member of the External Review Group (ERG), alongside other mental health experts in reviewing the guidelines and evidence behind them.

He said: “It’s really encouraging to see the publication of these guidelines, we know that a safe and healthy working environment supports mental health which in turn enables people to work productively. The evidence gathered by WHO has led to a really useful guidance document to help guide and focus organisations on actions and interventions they can take to support the mental health of their people.”

The full guidelines are available to access from the World Health Organisation here.

To discuss mental health at work training for staff, and crucially for your Managers and Leaders, please contact us at info@marchonstress.com to discuss your needs.

Click here to go back to the main News list