Mental Health and The Hippocratic Oath

Next week will inevitably usher in a flurry of social media posts, blogs, activities and hashtags in honour of National Mental Health Awareness Week 2020. This is undoubtedly a welcome initiative, hosted by the Mental Health Foundation each year with a specific theme as its focus.  

But…

Now more than ever, organisations need an approach which actively addresses the workplace mental health agenda for all fifty-two weeks of the year, not just one. 

More years previously than I care to remember, I took the Hippocratic Oath in my graduation ceremony.   There’s a key tenet contained within it - the non-maleficence of beneficence. A principle which is more easily remembered as “First do no harm.”  For the whole of my career as a doctor, I have been acutely aware of my ethical duty to avoid harm to patients and this includes by omission or neglect. 

Good work is good for us. Both in terms of our physical and our mental health.  And good work is a critical part of the wider public health agenda. 

But we must be prepared to take a long hard look at our ways of working.  To remind ourselves that, as employers, not only do we have legal obligations to identify and address the risks to mental health in our business, we too have a moral duty to “first do no harm.”

When it comes to workplace mental health, we must not be seduced by tokenism.  It is akin to the weekly Clap for Carers (which I have nothing against by the way; in fact I rather enjoy it) whilst PPE supplies remain inadequate. We need an approach to employee mental health which moves beyond mere awareness towards action. 

At Concilio Health (www.conciliohealth.com) our workplace mental health programmes are data-driven and evidence-based. We identify and address the root causes of stress and psychological ill health at individual, team and organisational level.  And we develop both line manager and leadership capability to strategically address these. To improve mental wellbeing for all.  Which, to be frank, no amount of Free Fruit Fridays and novel mindful colouring sessions will ever achieve.   

Dr Sarah Hattam is a director of Concilio Health, an organisational health consultancy which specialises in bespoke workplace wellbeing programmes.