Why Expectations, Employment and Empowerment is important for mental health

1. Let's explore different ways employment is beneficial for prevention and recovery.

When someone has a job, they feel a positive sense of identity, which helps to reduce personal and social stigma. When they feel positive about themself, they are more likely to have the power and motivation to seek the other things they need to help build a meaningful, functioning life – not feel limited to a life defined by the presence or absence of symptoms.

For example, someone working while recovering from mental health challenges is not only earning an income but also gaining a range of other social outcomes such as increased social connections with colleagues, and a sense of belonging in the workplace and the community. Having a job also helps to improve their quality of life, because as they work on their recovery they are working on other various factors, including managing their symptoms. If symptoms are being managed, the employee has a greater chance of coping in the workplace, at home, and in the community.

Being able to cope would give anyone a greater chance at performing better and succeeding at work. When they realise that they can cope, it gives them the confidence to work on their recovery, the confidence to do more themself, and when they see what they can achieve, it motivates them to stay on track with their recovery. The self-reliance and self-confidence open up other opportunities for personal and professional development in various areas.

2. Employment helps to reduce hospitalisation.

Employment for people recovering from mental health challenges has also been found to help reduce the chance of hospitalisation and readmission, overall reducing people's dependence on mental health services. When someone has a job and are working on their mental health, then it is highly likely they will stay on track with their recovery and not experience severe mental health distress that could lead to hospitalisation.

By including employment as part of our contemporary approach to mental health care and treatment, we can definitely support people to live a meaningful life as is their human right.

3. A mentally healthy workforce is good for business

Mentally healthy employees are invaluable to both themselves and their employers, fostering symbiotic employer-employee relationships where productivity, innovation, and overall well-being thrive.

When someone you employ maintains good mental health, there is a domino effect. If they feel well enough to work, they have a greater chance of turning up every day, enjoying their role and feeling satisfied in it, and as such reducing absenteeism. If they feel well enough to work every day, the longer they stay with you. The longer they stay, the more opportunities for them to increase their resilience and motivation in facing workplace challenges.

Now imagine an organisation where all employee feel mentally well to turn up and are exhibiting higher levels of motivation, creativity, and engagement. You would have a greater opportunity to have a workforce with improved job performance and career advancement opportunities. Once you start prioritising mental health in the workplace, it promotes a positive organisational culture that values empathy, open communication, and work-life balance, thereby reducing stress and burnout among employees.

Each individual employee is more likely to succeed if they see others on the team look after their own mental wellbeing. Employers who make the smart investment in the mental health of their workforce know this. They know they can yield numerous benefits, including higher retention rates, lower healthcare costs, and greater overall productivity. A mentally healthy workforce fosters a conducive environment for collaboration, problem-solving, and innovation, driving organisational success and competitive advantage.

Ultimately, by prioritising mental health in the workplace, both employees and employers can cultivate a culture of well-being that enriches people's lives and contributes to the long-term prosperity of the organisation. By giving employees the tools and space to take charge of their mental health journey, we can cultivate a workplace culture of understanding, acceptance, and holistic well-being. This spills into their personal life and helps them participate better at home, in their studies, in the community, and everything else they choose to do.

Why empowerment is important

People experiencing mental health challenges should always play a key role in their own recovery process. By getting them engaged and involved, they are more likely to succeed, and less likely to depend on our mental health care system. The benefit is two-fold, improving the outcomes for people as well as the system and the community.

Empowerment promotes recovery

When prioritising mental wellbeing, it's important to focus on empowerment through engagement, education and upskilling. Empowerment involves having genuine conversations with people to understand their needs and provide them with the tools, knowledge and resources that help ensure they are well equipped to seek the right supports for mental health and get the most out of these supports. It brings a sense of agency, resilience, and active engagement in a person's well-being. It also equips them with coping skills, problem-solving abilities, and a resilient mindset, enabling them to navigate life's challenges with greater confidence and adaptability.

When we feel empowered, we are more likely to recognise and address early signs of distress in ourselves, take proactive steps to maintain our mental health, and seek timely support when needed. Empowerment therefore shifts the narrative from being a passive recipient of care to being an active participant in the healing process. Instead of waiting for support or depending on others to offer support, we recognise that we need it, and we have the confidence to seek it. This sense of empowerment is particularly crucial in reducing stigma surrounding mental health, encouraging open dialogue, and creating a supportive community where we feel safe to share our experiences and seek assistance without fear of judgment. It is extremely helpful in everything we do.

Empowerment means taking charge of our own recovery

In line with our visual theme for the 2024 Mental Health Week campaign, we recognize the significance of empowerment depicted through individuals standing atop a hill or mountain. This imagery symbolizes the arduous yet triumphant journeys of those who have encountered mental health challenges, portraying the sense of strength and empowerment that accompanies personal achievements. The uplifted fists embody power and resilience, while the presence of two individuals evokes a shared sense of community and support. The choice of purple and green hues further amplifies the message, as these colours are traditionally associated with spirituality, inspiration, creativity, imagination, compassion, and wisdom

Healthy expectations are good for recovery

Setting and managing healthy expectations for ourselves can make a huge difference in recovery. By ‘healthy’ we mean beneficial, realistic, balanced and achievable. Setting expectations that are too high or too ambitious can at times cause self-sabotaging as we set our own bars too high, which is setting ourselves us up for failure. This can be very harmful because seeing ourselves ‘fail’ affects our self-confidence and morale, often leading to a damaged or a negative self-image and increased self-stigma and can discourage us from doing the work.

Whereas if we get to know ourselves, our strengths, abilities, our limits, and recovery goals, and we get a better understanding of the mental challenges we are experiencing, we are likely to better identify the types of support to seek to help us set healthy expectations that contribute positively to our recovery. We can also seek the coping skills to help us overcome the emotions that we experience when we realise that we couldn’t meet an expectation. This is a crucial step to avoid us regressing, blaming ourselves or blaming the external factors that we feel contributed to our inability to meet the expectation. It also helps manage and recover from any negative self-talk that we often experience after.

Another way we set unhealthy expectations for recovery is we set expectations for other people in our lives rather than for ourselves, when we truly cannot control the outcomes. For example, we might expect everyone around us to accept us the way we are and support our recovery. This sounds like a fair expectation, but the truth is, some people will accept us, but others won’t, even when they are aware of the mental health challenges that anyone (even them) could go through at some point in life. Some people might accept us but with conditions. Here, we are really setting expectations for other people rather than for ourselves. When we set expectations them and how they should think, behave, accept us, treat us, and so on, and then they fail to meet these expectations, we feel let down.

Most damagingly, we might feel hurt, frustrated, angry, disappointed, unworthy, unwanted, unloved, or any other feelings of rejection. Whereas if we do the opposite and set healthy and simple expectations for ourselves that involves other people, expectations that align with our needs and goals, then we have greater control of the journey and the outcomes. For example, instead of expecting others to accept us and support us, we might choose to expect ourselves to only engage with people who accept and support us. Then we choose how we will do this and how we will protect ourselves. We put ourselves and our needs first, consider ourselves first and activate those empowerment skills that help us set boundaries. Having boundaries is a great way to protect ourselves so we can be healthier and continue to succeed on our recovery journey.