Mental illness in the workplace is an area of increasing concern, and there is a push to make work environments more compassionate and wiser toward mental health struggles. 

Moving towards a more humane model of management and acknowledging things like mental illness is the first step forward, says Aadil Patel, national head of the employment practice at leading SA legal firm Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr.

The cost of mental illness

Stigmatisation of employees with mental health problems causes massive challenges in the workplace and significantly affects productivity. 

In fact, Harvard Business Review published the findings of a US survey that revealed that 50% of millennials and 75% of Generation Z (anyone born after 1997) have changed employment for mental health reasons. This should be enough to drive companies and managers to rethink the way they operate.

Despite the fact that in the US over 200 million workdays are lost due to mental health conditions each year, mental health remains a taboo subject – so much so that, according to HBR, almost 60% of employees have never spoken to anyone at work about their mental health.

David S. Mandell, Director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Centre for Mental Health Policy and Services Research, says in a Knowledge@Wharton article: 

“… large-scale studies are saying when you treat depression in the workplace, you get a substantial return on investment relatively quickly, so there’s a real economic argument for reducing the stigma, as long as we can provide evidence-based care for [the employees].”

So it seems like helping valuable employees with mental health issues makes good business sense, and also benefits employee loyalty and retention. Through early intervention, effective treatment can take effect and not only benefit the employee, but the business as well.

But how can this be done?

Positive steps

Employees may subscribe to wellness and meditation apps, but this may not be enough to effectively address the problem. 

According to Patel, many employees would rather remain quiet about mental health issues than suffer the humiliation that may occur in a company that does not have a proactive programme in place.

“Every year mental health awareness campaigns provide evidence that society in general is becoming more enlightened regarding mental illness. The next step is proactive and constructive discussions between management and employees,” he says.

Patel adds that having processes in place to pre-empt, mitigate and manage mental health challenges can go a long way towards reducing the impact on company and employee productivity:

“There are many things that employers can do to be proactive. These start with driving a culture of positivity and openness where employees feel safe to speak to their managers and human resources departments. Positive language is the starting point.”

He also says that mental illness, like many other diseases, can be successfully managed and treated. Many companies have already established programmes to assist employees in dealing with mental illness or symptoms related to their conditions. It is important to equip these programmes properly so that they have their desired effect.

Ernst & Young (EY), a large international accounting firm, has taken a very positive step in creating its “r u ok?” programme to address mental illness. As part of the programme, the company provides resources such as 24/7 counselling support; management consultation; and counselling sessions by phone, online, or face-to-face. 

Ever found yourself sticking to a planned diet when you eat alone, but being more relaxed when you dine with friends and family?

Now, according to a new study, the reason for this could be a throwback to our early ancestors’ approach to survival. This is also known as “social facilitation”.

According to a news release, previous studies have shown that those who eat with others eat up to 48% more food than those who dine alone.

For the latest study, experts at the University of Birmingham led a team of British and Australian researchers, who found that eating socially is strongly linked to consuming more food. For this purpose, they evaluated 42 existing studies on the topic.

A quest for survival

The reason for this is because ancient hunter gatherers shared food to protect against periods of food insecurity – and this ancient survival instinct might survive in humans today. The main reasons suspected for “overeating” in social settings are:

• Eating with others is more enjoyable and can therefore lead to overeating.
• Social norms make us think that it’s okay to indulge while in the presence of friends and family, but not when we are alone.
• When friends or family provide us with food, we want to please them by indulging and therefore providing food becomes associated with praise and recognition.

Research leader Dr Helen Ruddock, from the School of Psychology at the University of Birmingham, said in the news release: “We found strong evidence that people eat more food when dining with friends and family than when alone. However, this social facilitation effect on eating was not observed across studies which had looked at food intake among people who were not well acquainted.

“Findings from previous research suggest that we often choose what (and how much) to eat based on the type of impression that we want to convey about ourselves. Evidence suggests that this may be particularly pronounced for women eating with men they wish to impress and for people with obesity who wish to avoid being judged for overeating.”

The study shows that, as with many other species, humans tend to share a common food resource. Most humans are no longer hunter-gatherers, but the age-old behaviour of hunter-gatherers stuck through the evolution process, even though we now have an abundance of food.

How to socialise without overeating

Are you on a weight-loss journey or do you often find yourself overindulging at dinner parties and in social settings? Here are some easy tips to help you be more mindful of your food intake when dining with family and friends.

• Don’t be extremely hungry when attending social gatherings. Eat a healthy snack like a piece of fruit or some almonds to tide you over.
• Be mindful of your alcohol intake as this can increase your appetite and make you crave unhealthier options. Switch to water between drinks.
• Take note of your emotions while you are eating. Do you feel anxious or overexcited in social surroundings? Or are you stressing about a deadline the next day? Rather talk about your feelings instead of soothing them with food. 
• Focus on the conversation, rather than the menu. Put your utensils down while talking to the person next to you and make a point of carefully listening to the conversation.
• Eat mindfully, especially when at a buffet or an event that offers canapes, as it is easy to underestimate portions.
• When going to a restaurant, find the menu online beforehand to help you plan ahead and not be overwhelmed by the choices.
• Dish small portions at first when you are at a dinner party or a buffet-style restaurant. You can always have more if you are still hungry.
• Focus on your surroundings – the music, the table settings, the decor, the view, a piece of art at the venue – rather than the dishes in front of you. 
• When visiting friends or family for a meal, offer to help with preparations to keep your hands busy and your mind off food.

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Compiled by Marelize Wilke

Offering more vegetarian choices in school cafeterias significantly cuts meat consumption without hurting overall sales, British researchers report.

In more than 94 000 college cafeteria choices studied, doubling vegetarian options (from 1 in 4 choices to 2 in 4) reduced purchases of meaty meals by 40-80%.

“Replacing some meat or fish with more vegetarian options might seem obvious, but as far as we know no one had tested it before,” said lead author Emma Garnett, a conservationist at the University of Cambridge in England.

“Solutions that seem obvious don’t always work, but it would appear that this one does.”

Shifting to a more plant-based diet is one of the most effective ways to reduce the environmental impact of food production, she said.

When more vegetarian choices were available, they were popular at every meal, and meat eaters who ate vegetarian dishes at lunch didn’t go all-meat at dinner, the researchers found.

Vegetarian options have been an “afterthought” on menus for too long, Garnett said in a university news release.

“Flexitarianism is on the rise,” she said, referring to the eating style emphasizing plant-based foods but also allowing for occasional meat and animal products. “Our results show that caterers serving more plant-based options are not just responding to but also reshaping customer demand.”

Simple changes such as increasing the proportion of vegetarian options could be “usefully scaled up, helping to mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss,” Garnett said.

The report was published September 30 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Nyiko Masango would like to encourage fathers to be more involved in their children’s lives through his Presence in Fatherhood campaign. According to the Human Sciences Research Council and the South African Institute of Race Relations, 60% of children in the county have absent fathers.

His plan 

This isn’t Masango’s first feat – in 2017 he embarked on 100km walk from Polokwane to Tzaneen in solidarity with fathers who don’t have access to their children. He urges men to take centre stage and be involved in their children’s lives to avoid raising a generation of fatherless children.

Masango plans to complete his latest 3 400km journey in two and half weeks and would also like to summit Mount Kilimanjaro. “I will be cycling from Tzaneen to Tanzania to climb Kilimanjaro. I’m running a project called Presence in Fatherhood, an initiative that was birthed from my experience where I was denied access to my son after parting ways with his mother.”

Children’s development 

His main objective, he says, is to have men be actively involved in their children’s lives. He adds that absent fathers leave an impact on a child’s development.

“Fathers who are not involved in their children’s lives affect their holistic development. Fathers are important, they instil confidence, [a] sense of self-worth, and pride in their children.”

According to the South African Journal of Childhood Education physical, mental health, social competence, IQ and other learning outcomes of children whose fathers are not involved in their socio-educational development have been reported to be poorer compared with children whose fathers are physically present and participating in the processes and programmes of their development.

“Let’s man up. Let’s take responsibility, we brought these kids to earth. It doesn’t matter the circumstances surrounding the conception of their birth. At the end of the day, [it] is your child and you have to make it a point that you are involved,” he says.

Preparation

The Tanzania expedition, he adds, could have happened eight years ago but he didn’t feel he was ready. He says that people need be mentally and physically prepared to undertake such an excruciating expedition.

“As a fitness trainer, I have a training programme. I did weight and cardio workouts and cycling to prepare for this trip. I didn’t have a special diet as eating healthy is a lifestyle for me and for someone to embark on a journey like this, one must have an active lifestyle and be adventurous.”  He has started his journey on September 24, Heritage Day.

– Health-e News 

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Mogale MojelaMasango

Once a woman gives birth by Caesarean section, attempting a vaginal delivery is far riskier for mother and baby alike, a new study finds.

Researchers at the University of Oxford collected data on more than 70 000 births in Scotland between 2002 and 2015. Among women who attempted a vaginal delivery after a previous C-section, 28% had to have an emergency Caesarean, they reported.

Attempting vaginal delivery was associated with an added risk of uterine rupture, blood transfusion, body-wide infection and injury from surgery.

The risks for the infant include stillbirth, admission to a neonatal unit and resuscitation using drugs or intubation.

Low absolute risk

For mothers, the absolute risk of any of these complications, however, was low – 2% in those attempting a vaginal birth and 1% of those having a C-section.

Babies suffered one or more complications in 8% of attempted vaginal births and 6% of subsequent C-sections, the study found.

Kathryn Fitzpatrick, an epidemiologist at Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Population Health, led the study, which was published online in the journal PLOS Medicine.

“Our findings can be used to counsel and manage women with previous Caesarean section and should be considered alongside existing evidence on the increased risk of serious maternal morbidity in subsequent pregnancies associated with elective repeat Caesarean section,” she said in journal news release.

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