Millennials and women report mental health challenges at a much higher rate than other groups. What’s behind those numbers and how can HR help?
According to the American Psychological Association, millennials report experiencing higher levels of stress than any previous generation. The APA also reports that 12 per cent of the generation has a diagnosed anxiety disorder — nearly twice the rate of Baby Boomers.
They aren’t the only group making headlines over mental health concerns: The APA finds that women are about twice as likely as men to be diagnosed with major depression.
With psychological safety in the workplace emerging as a topic of high priority for many organizations and HR professionals over the past several years, deciphering the numbers and charting a course to address them is becoming a prime concern.
Behind the numbers
When it comes to the statistics about women and depression, not everyone interprets the data in the same way. “Women are more likely to report and be diagnosed,” says Mary Ann Baynton, principal with Mary Ann Baynton and Associates, and co-chair of the Technical Committee for the National Standard of Canada on Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace. “It’s not necessarily that they have more mental health challenges.”
Baynton points to work by Dr. Daniel Freeman of Oxford University, an expert in the field. In a 2015 article in Bustle magazine, Freeman was paraphrased: “Women are proportionally more likely to seek help than men because of men’s reluctance to admit to ‘unmasculine’ feelings or experience.” Freeman added, “We can never know exactly how many men are not reporting psychological problems.”
On the other hand, women could be at greater risk for depression. “There are three main areas that contribute to whether or not someone develops a mental health issue,” says Paula Allen, vice president of research, integrative solutions, with Morneau Shepell, “Those are biology, stress and social support, and in all of those three areas there’s some evidence that women have more challenges than men.”
Biological factors can include anything from genetics, hormone shifts, and even brain trauma. “Women have a different physiology: puberty starts earlier, there is a risk of postpartum depression. These aren’t major factors individually, but they start showing a trajectory toward higher risk,” says Allen.
“When it comes to stress, what matters is how much stress the person has, the persistence of that stress and whether or not they have traumatic stress,” says Allen. She points out that typically, women have stress from multiple sources, including work, family and elder care.
The third point, she says, is quality of an individual’s social support and coping skills. “Very often in relationships women take on the role of accountability in terms of the support provider, not the support recipient,” says Allen. “So they’re not really getting the same support in return.”
When it comes to millennials and higher reported rates of anxiety, Allen points to social support as a significant problem area. “In studies, the younger cohort tends to have a high volume of friends, but when they’re asked if there’s one person in particular they can go to for support in a crisis, a higher proportion say no than in any previous generation,” says Allen.
“A lot of people take that fact that we are seeing higher prevalence among younger cohorts and believe it’s because they’re more open to speaking about mental health challenges,” says Allen. “That may be so but it’s not significant enough to account for what we see.” She adds, “It’s not just help-seeking behaviour that might be increasing, we’re seeing changes that don’t relate to that.” In particular, she points to statistics suggesting that the proportions of students in universities having psychotic breaks and suicidal ideations has been increasing over time.
Allen also points to many younger workers’ compromised coping skills reinforcing depressive symptoms. “We’re finding the younger generation is more likely, if they’re under stress, to isolate,” says Allen. “They’ll put on headphones, listen to music, use social media to shield themselves from face-to-face contact with people.”
An APA study found 39 per cent of millennials reported an increase in stress in the past year, with another 52 per cent saying stress kept them awake at night in the past month.
“Anecdotally, when you talk to people who are younger, the opinion is that the expectation on them to succeed, to achieve and to win is greater than on past generations, and yet the opportunities to do so in the work world are fewer,” says Baynton.
Employers can help
Being proactive is a key part of tackling the problem. “Protecting psychological safety rather than waiting to address mental illness is really how workplace health has evolved,” says Baynton. “Whether you’re younger or older or male or female, protecting psychological safety should be a responsibility of the workplace in the same way we protect physical safety.”
Specifically, Allen says employers should address the biological, stress and support conditions that can impact mental health — such as sleep deprivation and health and wellness.
“Wellness programs and a corporate culture that supports healthy living can have a very
big impact on mental health,” says Allen.
Unearthing and addressing the causes of unnecessary stress can make a difference, too. “The National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety is really a roadmap for employers to understand different stressors inside the employers’ control, and how to mitigate them,” says Allen. “Stressors might include communication that’s not respectful, work overload, a lack of growth opportunities — all things that employers can address.” She adds, “Every job has stress, and some stress is actually good and motivating, but what we’re talking about is getting rid of the stress that’s harmful and negative.”
When it comes to impacting employees’ coping skills, Allen points out this is an area where employers can offer training — and managers can model good coping skills.
Allen also points out the importance of effective work teams to promote a sense of psychological safety. “Do people feel they can ask for help, if they need it, if they feel overwhelmed? And do you have support mechanisms like EAP, outside of the workplace, to help people get the resources they need to effectively manage problems?”
To help organizations address several of these points, Baynton recently assembled a group of experts, including researchers in the fields of emotional intelligence, compassion fatigue, trauma and resilience—to design a guide called Building Stronger Teams. “The goal was to create activities for the workplace that will build employees’ and leaders’ resilience,” says Baynton.
Undifferentiated support
“Steps to support psychological safety in the workplace are designed to help everyone — women, men, millennials, GenXers, everyone,” says Baynton. “Each person who takes part will experience it a bit differently, but an employer takes the same approach with every employee and allows each person to gain from it what they will.”
Allen, too, sees merit in offering undifferentiated support to employees. “Overall, I think the strategies to address key factors for mental health challenges make sense for everyone,” she says. “There may be a higher prevalence of depression among women or millennials, but there’s also a fairly high prevalence for men, as well.”
It’s smart business
Steps taken to improve psychological safety in the workplace have other benefits.
“If you think of an organization that does well in any of these areas — productive problem solving, getting rid of unnecessary stress, and so on — those are the things that help increase productivity,” says Allen. “Those are things people respond to when they think of engagement and a positive work experience.”
Further Reading
National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace
www.mentalhealthcommission.ca/English/national-standard
Guarding Minds @ Work
www.guardingmindsatwork.ca/
Building Stronger Teams
