Employers must assist in fight against mental health problems says local MEP (Birmingham Yardley Liberal Democrats)

Birmingham Yardley Liberal Democrats <info@libdems.org.uk>

Employers must assist in fight against mental health problems says local MEP

November 5, 2008 11:33 AM
Originally published by West Midlands Liberal Democrats

Liz Lynne MEP. Local Euro-MP Liz Lynne has said that employers need to do more to identify staff suffering from mental ill health and to assist staff in working through their problems.

Her comments come after mental health charity Mind published research showing that 58% of people suffering from mental health problems in the UK had been forced to leave work due to lack of support. The report also showed that a shocking 31% of mental ill health sufferers have been sacked or pushed out of their job after disclosing their illness.

Liz, who is Vice- President of the Employment and Social Affairs Committee in the European Parliament, said that employers had to learn to deal with employees problems rather than shy away from them:

"Across Europe it is estimated 3 out of every 10 people suffers from a mental health problem at some point in their lives. According to the World Health Organisation, the barriers that prevent these people from working costs the Western World around 4% of its GDP per annum. That figure equates to a loss of almost double the entire GDP of Austria every single year.

"It is vital that employers here in the UK, and in the rest of Europe, do more to aid those with mental health problems and seek to keep people in work rather than simply shunning them from society."

Liz also called for the UK government to look at the ways in which other Member States had sought to aid those suffering from mental ill health and to share best practise on how to tackle the issue:

"We must learn from what other countries are doing right. In the UK as many as 20% of young people aged 16- 24 have some form of mental health problem, in Belgium it is only 4%. We must look at what they are doing differently to us and learn from their good example.

"Mental Ill Health should not be the death of ambition or the end of a person's working life and it is important that employers, the government and the country as a whole understand this and seek to better deal with the challenges such illnesses bring."