MORE local companies are engaging with psychologists and therapists for employee-assistance programmes (EAP), including mental health training and counselling for their staff, said such service providers.

A corporate mental health service manager, who requested anonymity, said there appears to be an increase in companies seeking such services for their employees since the start of the movement-control order (MCO) last March.

“There is also an increase in the awareness of individuals in utilising these services, if already provided by the company,” the manager said.

“While this is a positive thing, many seek such services on a case-by-case basis, often as a reactionary measure to an incident, as opposed to a preventative measure.”

The manager added that 2021 seems like an optimistic year in terms of mental health funding as many organisations are more aware of the effects of the pandemic on their employees.

Joel Low, clinical psychologist and director of The Mind, said both the white-collar and the blue-collar sectors are affected.

“Primarily, our clients are more white collars but we also work with a few blue collars, it’s expanding actually. The mental health struggles for both groups are the same, but the trigger of the struggles may be different.

“For white collars, the struggles are to get a promotion or from working from home. For blue collars, I suppose the worries are to put food on the table. However, they both are still stressed, panic and anxious.”

Low, also the vice-president of the Malaysian Society of Clinical Psychology hopes Malaysian companies can one day regard mental health issues as equal to physical ailments.

“People are recognising that they have anxiety, panic or depression and they take a mental health day for themselves.”

The most practical thing companies can start with is to not discriminate against mental health, said Low.

However, there are also concerns that some companies are only doing it as a lip-service and may be half-hearted about addressing mental health issues that have arisen or worsened because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Companies are indeed practising more duty of care at a very minimum surface level, whether they truly mean it or not.

“There are some EAP that companies engage in and are willing to commit to all the sessions and the cost. But you also have companies that just come up with a panel for EAP but leave the staff to pay for the cost,” Low said.

In any case, companies would do well to be prepared for staff taking more leave to address their mental health issues, as data shows that a sizeable number of sick leave cases are related to mental health.

Clinical psychologist Justine Thong said a 2017 study among public service employees in Malaysia found stress and personal life problems accounting for up to 69% of the medical leave.

“I would agree that mental health issues correlate with absenteeism and sick leave. For one, mental health can negatively impact on physical health,” Thong, who is an EAP consultant and trainer director of Oak Mind Wellness Ipoh said.

“Many mental health issues have corresponding physical symptoms. For example, individuals with an anxiety disorder may experience chest pains or tightness and difficulty breathing.

“Anyone experiencing such symptoms would be noticeably feeling unwell, leading to sick leave or an emergency leave,” she said.

International SOS, a global health and security services company recently released its risk outlook 2021 on the top five threats to the workforce.

Among them, mental health issues are seen as having an impact on employee productivity in 2021.

Leave taken for mental health may likely overtake leave taken for physical ailments, such as Covid-19 symptoms, experts in the report predict.

The World Health Organisation also highlighted last October that countries are spending less than 2% of their national health budgets on mental health.

This is a chronic underfunding of mental health and a struggle to meet the population’s needs, WHO said. – March 10, 2021.