MENTAL HEALTH

60% of the world population is in work

61% of workers work in the informal economy

207 million unemployed people are expected in 2022 a

301 anxiety million people lived with million people lived with 280 depression

Many of these people are working-age adults.

The report focuses on the prevention of psychosocial risks, protection and promotion of mental health and support of workers with mental health conditions, so they can participate and thrive in the world of work.

As it says, an estimated 12 billion workdays are lost annually due to depression and anxiety costing the global economy nearly US$ one trillion. WHO’s global guidelines on mental health at work recommend actions to tackle risks to mental health such as heavy workloads, negative behaviours and other factors that create distress at work. For the first time WHO recommends manager training, to build their capacity to prevent stressful work in 2019 in 2019 in 2019

15% of working-age adults had a mental disorder in 2019 of total societal cost of mental health conditions is driven by indirect costs such as reduced productivity

12 billion

50% working days are lost every year to depression and anxiety people died by 703 000 suicide

US$ 1 trillion cost to the global economy due to depression and anxiety, predominantly from lost productivity

Sources: IHME, 2019 [5]; ILO, 2018 [7]; ILO, 2022 [8]; Christensen et al., 2020 [9]; Chisholm et al., 2016 [10] environments and respond to workers in distress.

“It’s time to focus on the detrimental effect work can have on our mental health. The well-being of the individual is reason enough to act, but poor mental health can also have a debilitating impact on a person’s performance and productivity” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.

A copy of this policy briefing can be found online or by contacting our health and safety department for a link to the briefing.