President of Ghana Psychological Association, Dr. Collins Badu Agyemang
The National President of Ghana Psychological Association (GPA), Dr. Collins Badu Agyemang, has linked constant errors by employees at the workplace to mental health challenges.
He revealed in an interview that a number of employees are going through a lot of work-related stress however, they are unable to voice out their grievances to get the needed mental help.
“There are a number of employees from our practice who make mistakes, they get it wrong [but] they keep repeating it. It may not be as a result of non-performance but simply because there may be spillover effects. They are finding it difficult to manage their work with their life or their life with their work…”, he said in a Joy News monitored by Angelonline.com.gh.
In August 2021, the GPA revealed that personnel in the security services and media professionals are victims of poor mental health due to the nature of their work and abysmal working conditions.
According to Dr. Badu Agyemang, the inability of workers to find solutions to life-changing challenges confronting them can result in substance abuse and subsequently impact negatively on their work.
“They [employees] are finding it difficult to deal with home-related violence, they are finding it difficult to manage life-related challenges that they are confronted with… Some begin to use drugs, they will be drinking, smoking [and] hanging out with their colleagues at work till 4:00am on Saturday”, he said.
While emphasizing that these are signs that many employees are going through difficult times and they need help, he questioned the preparedness of Human Resource directors to adequately support workers.
Dr. Agyemang outlined a number of occupational stresses including work-related conflicts, bullying at the workplace, workplace harassment, all of which he believes make employees depressed.
The Mental Health Foundation, based in UK, has indicated that mental health problems are “the leading cause of sickness absence. A staggering 70 million work days are lost each year due to mental health problems in the UK, costing employers approximately £2.4 billion per year”.
The GPA president has therefore challenged the Ministry of Employment to address the mental health of employees.
Again, he urged HR managers and organizations to be taught to prioritize mental health and optimize support for wellbeing and psychological health of employees just as is done for biological health.