Are younger generations holding on to the mental health taboo?

Are younger generations holding on to the mental health taboo?

Three in ten UK employees have hidden a mental health issue – explaining their absence as being caused by a physical illness – according to a survey among 2,000 office workers by Helix Resilience. 

Strikingly, it is the 18 to 24 year-old age group that is most likely to feel the pressure to conceal the real nature of their absence, 37% compared with 26% of those aged 33 to 44, and 13% of employees over 55. 

The scale of the issue is highlighted by another of the study’s findings: 83% said the lockdown period had a major negative impact on their mental wellbeing. 32% of men and 42% of women said they had felt anxious; 42% of men and 50% of women had experienced problems with sleeping.

“There has been great progress over the past 10 years in terms of attitudes to mental wellbeing, more awareness of what’s involved, more openness and discussion, more acceptance that forms of mental illness can affect anyone,” said EAPA Chair Eugene Farrell.

“It might be expected that younger staff, coming fresh into this new work culture, would be the most progressive and comfortable with talking about mental health. But that’s to underestimate the additional pressures that younger people can be under: less financial security, maybe a less stable network of people behind them, and a sense they have more to prove to an employer – how they’re strong and committed.

“It’s always going to be a difficult conversation, raising mental health with an employer – much easier to say it’s back pain – and it’s critical that HR make their EAP offering as accessible as possible so that employees can start being honest, with themselves as much as anyone else; that they have someone they can talk to anonymously as a constructive way forward in recognising what’s happening and minimising the impacts so they are feeling better more quickly. Digital offerings, access via smartphone apps, through chat functions and video counselling can all help.”