A group, Women in Technical Education and Employment (WITED), Yaba College of Technology (Yabatech) chapter, has charged organisations to promote the mental health of women at the workplace.
It noted that mental health was vital to productivity, as most people were mentally unstable due to challenges at work and home.Speaking at WITED’s seminar entitled Women’s Mental Health in Work Place, the Acting Rector, Yabatech, Taiwo Oyelola, said it was important for organisations to cater for the wellbeing of their employees, especially women, who according to her, undergo many challenges, which result in emotional stress.
Corroborating the Rector, WITED’s coordinator, Dr. Oluseun Popoola, said women should be given due consideration at the workplace, as they go about with huge burden.She urged employers to create mental health-friendly programmes for the promotion of wellness and balanced work-life.
In her presentation entitled: “Working Women and Mental Health,” the guest speaker, Chief Consultant Psychiatrist, Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba-Oshodi Annex, Dr. Funmi Akinola, said many workers have mental issues, which affects their productivity at workplace, adding that organisations need to support their employees in promoting their mental health.
“Stress from work can impact our family life and cause discomforts, mental health is a state of wellbeing where every individual recognizes his potential. Hence, organisations should provide platforms for their workers to get treated,” she said.
Akinola, however, urged organisations to provide comfortable working environment for their employees, “train and develop them”, as open communication between the management and employees will create a healthy workplace.
“Employers should create an organisational climate that promotes wellbeing, creativity and facilitating care for those who need it. Symptoms such as difficulties in concentrating and making decisions cause significant impairment in productivity at work,” she added.
The psychiatrist, further charged women not to over work themselves as their brain would be disturbed and it could lead to breakdown, adding that many women are unaware they have mental issues. “It is important to sleep well at night because that is when your brain rests that you can perform maximally at work,” she added.