No Mental Wellness Equals No Employee Wellbeing
William McPeck
Workplace Humanizer and Employee Wellbeingpreneur focusing on creating thriving informed workplaces through wellbeing strategies and systems integration.
While this might be a pretty bold assertion, it is an assertion I believe to be true.
According to Dr. Pooka Lakshmin (MD): “It’s impossible for these external activities (what she calls faux self-care) to sustainably produce the feelings we are looking for them to deliver - worthiness, acceptance, relief.” (Lakshmin, 2023)
In order to address worthiness, acceptance and relief, employers and workplace wellbeing practitioners must address mental wellness/wellbeing. Mental wellness/wellbeing is not mental health, but rather one component of mental health. The other two components of mental health are mental despair/distress and mental illness.?
As a component of mental health, mental wellness/wellbeing consists of three components - psychological, social and emotional. Based on research, Dr. Corey L.M. Keyes (PhD) puts forth a model depicting the three components of mental wellness/wellbeing being made up of 13 elements identified as follows:
Psychological Elements
Social Elements
Emotional Elements
Based on his research findings, Dr. Keyes puts forth a two continuum model of mental health. The mental health continuum ranges from languishing to flourishing, while the continuum of mental illness ranges from mild to severe.?
Academics, unlike the general population, differentiate mental health from mental illness. The general population today typically uses the term mental health as a proxy term for mental illness. This means that when the general population talks about mental health, they generally are talking about mental illness.?
To avoid confusion around the term mental health when talking with employers and practitioners about employee and workplace mental health, I call Dr. Keyes’ three component mental health model, mental wellness. Since I have found no difference between mental wellness and mental wellbeing in the literature, I typically use the term mental wellness/wellbeing when talking with employers and practitioners.
To effectively and successfully address mental health in the workplace, I believe employers and practitioners must address all three components of mental health. Historically, employers have typically only addressed mental illness. On this note, employers have a long and proud history dating back to the 1940’s when employers began to address employee alcoholism. But addressing mental illness and substance abuse is only part of the mental health picture. Employers focusing only on mental illness and substance abuse are only providing mental health services for about 40% of the employee population. This obviously leaves 60% of the employee population not benefiting from employer support.
The research is clear that 100% of employees experience some level of mental wellness/wellbeing ranging from languishing to flourish. It is for this reason that I believe employers and practitioners must also address employee mental wellness/wellbeing, in addition to addressing mental illness. The good news for employers is that since mental wellness/wellbeing is not clinical in nature, employers can support employees without having to utilize a licensed mental health professional.
We also know that life has its ups and downs. Bad things happen to good people often resulting in the development of mental despair or distress. Mental despair or distress typically also do not require intervention by a licensed mental health professional, though they can escalate to a level requiring clinical intervention. Mental despair/distress can effectively and successfully addressed by employer level supports.??
The research is clear that the closer an employee is to the flourishing end of the mental wellness/wellbeing spectrum, the more engaged they are in work. We also know that higher levels of engagement result in higher levels of performance and productivity. Despite this knowledge, very few employers and practitioners today specifically address mental wellness/wellbeing.
Since we know the three components that constitute mental wellness/wellbeing, implementation is not a matter of knowing what, but rather how. What might the implementation of the mental wellness/wellbeing model look like? That is the question and challenge. How can the mental wellness/wellbeing model be effectively and successfully incorporated into a foundational implementation framework and what application methods would be incorporated into this framework?
References
Keyes, Corey, L.M. 2022. The Mental Health Continuum: From Languishing to Flourishing in Life. Journal of Health and Social Behavior. Volume 43, No. 2, pp. 207 - 222.
Lakshmin, Pooka. 2023. Real Self-Care. New York: Penguin Life.