July 2, 2015 ÄZ: Patched up brain: Mental illnesses still don’t get the attention they deserve. © freshidea / fotolia.com Ärzte Zeitung / App / 124D02 / 02.07.2015 Brain disease therapy and mental health treatment concept as a sheet of torn crumpled white paper taped together shaped as a side profile of a human face on wood as a symbol for neurology surgery and medicine or psychological help.
PGGM&CO conducts quarterly research into fitness and balance among healthcare and welfare employees. This time, PGGM&CO, in collaboration with the IZZ Foundation, also looked at the transition from summer to work and to what extent vacation ensures a charged battery. A total of 1,200 healthcare and welfare employees participated in the study.
Physical complaints
The health care workers surveyed give their mental fitness a 6.8. Last year they rated their mental fitness with a 7.1. At the same time, the workload is at its highest (7.0) compared to last year and healthcare workers expect this to increase significantly in the coming quarter (7.7). This leaves its mark mentally and physically. One in five employees often or always has a headache due to work pressure and stress. Other common causes of headache complaints are fatigue (57 percent), hormonal changes (42 percent), drinking too little water (36 percent) and sleeping problems (33 percent). The more often employees have headaches, the less fit they are, the worse the balance and the lower the job satisfaction. In as many as 94 percent, headaches affect their ability to work.
Despite the recent holiday period, half of the care and welfare employees do not feel mentally fitter. Even during the holidays, about half were concerned about workload and dreaded going back to work. “The fitness and balance of care and welfare employees are at stake,” responds Henriette Davelaar, director of PGGM&CO. A quarter found the return to work disappointing, mainly because of the work pressure and more than half are already ready for a holiday. Work pressure is also a bummer among employees who continued to work during the holiday and found this disappointing. “Given the impact of the current workload and the expected increase in the coming quarter, the urgency to tackle workload is only greater.”
emotionally exhausted
The need to tackle the high workload is also apparent from recent research into healthcare use by healthcare workers. “We know that at the moment 1 in 6 healthcare workers is emotionally exhausted,” says Anouk ten Arve, program manager for healthy working at the IZZ Foundation. 8 percent of these emotionally exhausted employees need extra psychological care for this. “The demand for mental health care has increased by 29 percent compared to 2020 and will not decrease without tackling the workload.”
According to Davelaar, the increased workload makes it even more important that care and welfare organizations pay attention to the wellbeing of their employees. “Imagine the state of the physical and mental fitness of employees, for example with our Vitality Monitor.” Also be alert to signs such as headache, fatigue, irritability and concentration problems. “And talk to employees in the team about what leads to less work pressure and stress and therefore fewer complaints in the field of work.” As an example, she mentions a better work-life balance through self-scheduling, support from a (team) coach, more moments of relaxation during a working day or investing in a safe team atmosphere.
Report to employer
In addition, according to Davelaar and Ten Arve, it is important that employees themselves also raise the alarm with their employer by asking for help in case of excessive work pressure and mental or physical complaints. “Many employees don’t do this because they feel unsafe, think it won’t help, or don’t dare.” As a result, employers often do not know that this is happening or only when it is too late and employees are home sick. “By discussing this with each other in good time, they can look together at what is needed to improve well-being,” the study recommends.