Sustaining Good Mental Health in the Face of Health and Political Crisis

Abstract

Good mental health should be free to all. However, the many factors that contribute to our daily and longer-term psychological well-being are rarely constant and where we need support finances are often a consideration, whether our own or those of the health services on offer. Furthermore, access to positive experiences of mental health is governed by a host of everyday and dispositional variables, over which we have limited control. This is certainly true of the workplace as elsewhere and the last decade has seen unprecedented progress in developing national strategies around the world to support mental health at work. However, in times of change and uncertainty, risks to psychological well-being increase and so this has proved during the waves of fear and loss during the COVID-19 pandemic, further fuelled by anxieties accompanying economic and political tensions and highlighted through inequalities, poverty and protest. This commentary considers the role of appropriate guidance for workplaces in relation to the mental health of employees, taking the UK as a case study example in times of economic and political challenge (e.g. Brexit) as well as the health emergency shared by all.