Articles Tagged with ''mental health''

Nearly 20 percent of U.S. workers experience bullying in the workplace and 19 percent witness it, according to a national survey conducted by the Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI). The survey defined workplace bullying as “repeated mistreatment of an employee by one or more employees; abusive conduct that is: threatening, humiliating, or intimidating, work sabotage, or verbal abuse.” Although the WBI survey was conducted in 2017, the problem has not abated; in a 2019 Monster.com survey, nearly 94 percent out of responding employees reported being bullied in the workplace. 

In a first-ever action, a company and its former managers were criminally prosecuted for institutional harassment associated with suicides among the company’s employees. In a judgment last month, the Paris Criminal Court sentenced France Telecom to a fine of 75,000 euros - the maximum penalty – for institutional harassment that had spread from the leadership to the rest of the company in 2007-2008.

After increasing steadily from 2005 - 2015, workplace suicides in the U.S. hit a new record high in 2016 – 291 – according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. A total of 1,719 male and female workers committed suicide on the job between 2003 and 2007. Those numbers only takes into account suicides that occur at work. Among occupational groups, male employees of construction and mining companies had the highest suicide rate: 53.2 deaths per 100,000 in 2015, up from 43.6 in 2012.

With suicide rates rising in the U.S., the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is proposing the establishment of 988 as a national 3-digit number to help people access suicide prevention and mental health services. While a National Suicide Prevention Lifeline already exists – and can reached at (1-800-273-TALK) – FCC Chairman Ajit Pai says an easy-to-reach number would result in more people getting the assistance they need.

Eliminating exposure to asbestos and addressing the effect of climate change on mental health were two of the fourteen new policy statements adopted by the American Public Health Association’s (APHA) Governing Council at its 2019 Annual Meeting and Expo in Philadelphia this week. The ambitious agenda includes topics ranging from environmental justice to drinking water safety and attacks on health workers.

An employer-sponsored behavioral health program can reduce symptoms in employees with depression and anxiety, reports a study in the October Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has published a new webpage on Suicide and Occupation. The page includes factors that are linked to increased risk of suicide among occupations, ways to prevent suicide in the workplace, and a host of other resources. There were more than 47,000 deaths by suicide in the U.S. in 2017. It was the second leading cause of death among people 10 to 34 years of age.

Average people who suffer a concussion may be three times more likely to commit suicide years after their brain injury, a new Canadian study suggests. The long-term risk of suicide appears to increase even more if the head injury occurs during a weekend, researchers found.