Supporting Our Mental Health - and Our Colleagues’

08/25/2023

Supporting Our Mental Health - and Our Colleagues’

To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.
David Viscott, 1938 - 1996, American psychiatrist and author

The global prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by an alarming 25% in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a scientific brief released by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2022.

With mental health issues on the rise, why is it that people are often reluctant to address them with colleagues? And if we do broach the topic, what’s the best way to do it? And how do we know what the boundaries are in these conversations? Those are the kinds of questions addressed in the Exchange Reflections, “No Shame in Addressing Mental Health: Supporting Colleagues and Ourselves,” based on an article by M. Meghan Davidson. The author writes:

“If you encountered a colleague or employee who had the sniffles or a cough, you would likely inquire if they were feeling okay. The same should be true for mental health issues. There is not shame, nor should there be a stigma, associated with struggles in mental health.”

Davidson offers much food-for-thought for discussion, as well as suggestions for dealing with a daunting subject in a healthy way.

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