Mental health problems and their effects can be faced in lots of areas in our lives. Sometimes these problems are not considered to be important and are not intended to make right or disappear. Here we will discuss some mental health problems, their effects on the person experiencing them, the impact of these on their work and the solutions psychology can provide today.

The explanations of these problems given in this document are brief and are provided in an educative manner. Some examples included here should not be used as symptom tracking nor should be taken as health advice. If you suspect you are experiencing these problems, we advise you to contact a professional on the matter.

1. Common mental health problems and their effects

Some of the most common mental health problems are depression, stress, and anxiety. Common mental disorders are increasing worldwide [1]. It was found that from 1990 to 2013, there has been an increase on the number of people suffering from depression and/or anxiety. This means an increase from 416 million to 615 million.

Stress

Stress can be seen in daily activities, social interactions and in institutions like school and workplace. It is important to have information and control over the stress levels of students, staff and workers in an institution. Here are some data to give us a better understanding of the impact stress has in the world.

• About one million Americans miss work each day because of stress.

• %80 of workers feel stressed about their jobs and state they need help on how to manage stress [2].

Stress can create some physical reactions too. Some of them are:

• Sleep problems,

• Headache,

• Digestive problems,

• Stomach problems,

• Skin conditions: Rashes, itches.

Depression

To explain depression briefly: It is a negative affective state, where the person has feelings of sadness and pessimism that last for weeks. These states affect the person’s daily life and lasts for a long time if it goes untreated.

Depression can have immense outcomes for the person and the society they are in.

• More than 300 million people suffer from depression globally.

• Depression results in loss of productivity which costs the global economy approximately $1 trillion each year [3].

Physical, cognitive and social changes can happen in depression. Some of these changes are:

• Lack of energy or motivation,

• Sleeping and eating habits altered,

• Difficulty in making decisions,

• Withdrawal from social activities. [4]

Anxiety

Anxiety is having feelings like worry, fear or dread. This can be for a short or long time, and everybody could experience anxiety because of a daily difficulty or a long lasting problem [5].

People may experience anxiety from lots of problems/difficulties. Some may be social, economical, emotional or related to a phobia. Here are some statistics about anxiety experiences of people:

• Throughout 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic, global prevalence of depression and anxiety have increased 25% [6].

• In 2017, almost 264 million adults around the world had anxiety disorder [7].

There are some bodily expressions of anxiety, some of them are listed below:

• Feeling worried: Feelings of unease,

• Having trouble sleeping,

• Difficulty in concentrating,

• Having aches: Stomachache, headache etc.

• Feeling tired and fatigued easily [5,8].

2. Work related mental health problems

Presenteeism & productivity

Presenteeism is when a worker comes to work when they are sick, have a psychological problem or are unwell in a general meaning. This results in low productivity for the person, and the institution [9].

Employees link their anxiety, depression and stress states directly to work & working conditions. This may result in presenteeism.

• On average, presenteeism costs businesses £605 per person each year.

• 27 days of productive time per employee are lost each year due to presenteeism.

• 45% of organizations say that, on average, a quarter of their staff comes to work when sick.

• 67% of 18-26-year-olds feel obliged to stay in the workplace longer than their contracted hours [10],

• 10 million working days are lost in UK because of anxiety, depression and stress, this results in productivity loss [11].

Absenteeism

Absenteeism is people missing work with no valid reason. Like when they are not sick, not using their holiday permits and eventually start not coming to work on a head-turning amount. These incidents mean there might be a problem with the employee and organization’s communication, or the effect the job has on the employee.

• The average workplace absenteeism rate in the US is 3.2%.

• Roughly one million workers a day are absent from work due to stress.

• The average workplace sickness absenteeism rate in the UK stands at 2.2%. [12]

Burnout

Burnout is a physical and emotional exhaustion state that can happen from long-term stressful events. Burnouts mostly occur from work related stress [13].

Some signs of burnout:

• Procrastinating and taking more time to get things done,

• Feeling exhausted and overwhelmed,

• Feeling defeated and tired,

• Having self-doubts.

Since burnout is a mostly work related state, it can directly affect work productivity.

• Workplace burnout reached record high in 2020 in the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak [14],

• Most people experiencing burnout do not have compensation methods or help from the institutions they work at,

  • %36 of workers who feel burnout feel their organization have nothing to help employee burnout.

• Employees who feel unsupported by their manager’s are %70 more likely to feel burnout,

• %22 of remote workers indicated they had problem 'unplugging' in the pandemic outbreak. Meaning burnout is not specially relevant for the face-to-face workplace [15].

Information Problem

Information problem happens when a new employee has difficulty to reach information that is relevant to their job. This information can be practical information or theoretical information. Not having proper knowledge on their tasks and their time they will consume or the order they should be done in is also an information problem.

• Information problem is the most common problem for a new employee.

• Average of 1.1 hours per day was lost on unproductive information searches.

  • 1.1 hours per day means more than 30 workdays per year per person.

• In a survey, over 40% of managers said they use incorrect information at least weekly.

• Managers stated they have the information they need less than 75% of the time [16].

Turnover

Turnover is the number of employees that have quit in a certain time period [17].

• As of 2021, the national average annual turnover rate was 57.3% [18].

• Every year, a company will experience an average of 18% turnover in its workforce.

• A business can lose 6% of its staff on average, in order to reductions in force or termination due to poor performance.

• The cost of replacing an individual employee can range from one-half to two times the employee’s salary. This can cost the organization as much as $160,000 [19].

Engagement

An employee being engaged with their work is beneficial for both the employee and the industry they work at. Work engagement is important because it is associated with employee well-being and performance, which can effect employee productivity.

• Only 36% of employees are engaged in the workplace.

• 51% of employees are disengaged in the workplace [20].

Even though these mental health problems and/or disorders are common, this does not mean they are invincible. To solve these problems, counseling and interventions can be used. These methods aim to lower, and eventually eliminate, the effects of mental health problems.

3. A general look at interventions: What is being done?

Most common types of interventions are based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and mindfulness methods. Let’s learn the basics of these methods.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive behavioral therapy is a psychological treatment where the participant learns to recognize patterns in their life, detect and change unhelpful ways of thinking, and use problem-solving skills to cope better with difficult situations [21].

Interventions including the CBT techniques aim for the same outcomes. So, the interventions using CBT techniques, also called cognitive behavioral interventions (CBI), teaches the participant how to look at their own thoughts from a different point of view, and help them learn better coping skills.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is one’s awareness of internal and external surroundings. Mindfulness aims to help people to avoid their automatic habits, by learning to observe their thoughts and emotions about the experience without judgment or reaction [22].

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBI) can help one with their stress, depression and anxiety. MBI can help the person to take one step back and observe their internal thoughts and experiences [23].

Some mindfulness activities are:

• Meditation,

  • Different types of meditation: Mindfulness meditation, walking meditation, pausing meditation, body scan and compassion meditation.

• Mindful communication: Listening, having a dialog, this is using mindfulness manners while doing these activities,

  • Mindful emailing,

• Mindful social meetings: Having a minute of silence before a group meeting,

• Noticing positive experiences: Focusing on the present,

• Daily journaling.

Key points of interventions:

• Interventions are generally used for treatment, not many intervention program aim to prevent a problem before they are surfaced.

  • Although aiming for 'prevention' is a much safe situation, because if a problem is prevented, the person and the secondary elements are not effected as much.

• Interventions are aimed to work for a long time: Creation of such programs are aimed to last long or provide a solution that is efficient in the long run; so months after intervention programs, researchers ask for feedback about the current situation which the intervention tended to fix.

• There can be different types of interventions for the goal they want to achieve.

  • For example: A work-focused intervention is where normal intervention equipment and techniques are adjusted to specific work conditions.

• Technology-mediated interventions with therapist support, could provide a more effortless intervention and increase the effectiveness.

• Group interventions have higher effect rates compared to individual interventions' [27].

Stress Interventions

• Research shows CBI and MBI can significantly reduce levels of stress and symptoms that come with it, like: low sleep quality, high depression levels etc. [11, 24, 25].

Depression Interventions

• Multiple intervention techniques have been used to lower depression levels, the most effective has been the CBT method [26].

• Another study shows a multi-modeled intervention program is better than a CBT intervention alone, because it helps the participant to gain more skills in coping with depression [27].

Presenteeism Interventions

• Work-focused interventions program that included having regular telephone calls with a counselor showed significant differences. Decrease in presenteeism and depression, also increase in productivity levels was seen [28].

• Mindfulness-based interventions have also been effective in increasing levels of productivity and, decreases in stress [11].

Absenteeism Interventions

• Multi-component CBT intervention had the most significant outcome.

  • This intervention program also provided individual consultations and opportunity to contact with company managers about the problems. Providing a platform for employees to share the problems they have in the workplace to their superior helps them feel to be heard [29].

Burnout Interventions

• Group-based burnout interventions and MBI, showed significant decrease in burnout that lasted up to 6 months after the intervention [30, 11].

Information Problem Interventions

Cognitive task analysis (CTA) is a method used to understand the procedure of some tasks better. An expert on the task concludes the steps to get the task done. Whilst doing so, they state their thoughts, why they are applying that step as it is, and what they think before proceeding to the next step. Explaining procedural steps and emphasizing on cognitive decision points provide learners with a structured framework, and this helps them to learn an easier way to process the knowledge of a task.

• In a research CTA was delivered using courses, computer software, web-based multimedia tools and mobile phone applications. Using CTA as a training method has shown positive effects on new employee’s learning period [31].

Turnover Interventions

• Interventions to reduce turnover have been most effective when they are internship/residency or orientation/transition programs.

• Turnover rates after almost 7 months long interventions showed 31.1% decrease.

  • Other interventions, that lasted less than 7 months, had lower turnover rates like, 3.9%, 7.8%, 9.4% [32].

Engagement Statistics

• Interventions have been helpful in increasing work engagement, regardless of the type of the intervention.

• Group interventions slightly had higher results in engagement.

  • This could mean there is a benefit of working in groups for increasing resources, work engagement and well-being.

• There are ambiguous results in sustainability of effects, thus long-term effects are not known [33].

4. What can be done better?

Even though some methods and techniques are known to be useful, in the growing world of technology, some aspects of these interventions could be handled much easily and effectively with technological updates. For example, online counseling has immensely grown over the past 15 years [34]; this can be due to financial, logistic and timewise benefits of online environment. Online platforms have been chosen by the counselors and the clients, because they are more convenient than face-to-face counseling.

Implementing interventions to online platforms also evades financial burdens and time loss to a point. Online and telephone implemented intervention examples were given previously and they have been beneficial for the participants [28, 31]. Organizing interventions to be used in online platforms could also help more people with psychological problems to have cheaper and easier access to a solution.

Current implementations of interventions to online platforms and online interventions are a topic to be discussed separately.

5. Takeaways

In this paper psychological problems and their solutions have been discussed. Psychological problems are more common around the world almost every day. The effects of psychological problems are not only disrupting to the person having the problem, but to the social environment and work environment they are in. Even though people can tell there is something wrong, they are not willing to ask for help and sometimes the environment they are in does not provide such services.

It is really important for an organization to be aware of the mental well-being of their employees. When an employee has a decline in their mental well-being, this affects the person’s daily and personal life, but also has a crucial negative effect on the organization too. The organization can be damaged by such problems from lower levels of productivity, engagement and turnover. So, the organizations should take responsibility to prevent and treat their employees to avoid more serious issues.

Psychological interventions have different types of techniques for different problems, but overall they are effective if applied properly. In a workplace, interventions can increase the well-beings of employees and have long term positive effects. It is best to detect a problem before it becomes a problem, to lower the negative aspects of it as possible. So, if mental well-being of employees are to be observed routinely, the problems can be prevented and the organization would have a peaceful and productive environment.

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