Abstract
There is an ongoing global movement for the entrenchment of occupational mental health as an integral part of occupational health and safety schemes. Aside from being a fundamental human right issue, this move has been demonstrated to be of cost-benefit in terms of workplace productivity and general economic growth. Despite being among the regions most prone to the human and economic repercussions of work-related mental health problems by reason of her socio-economic circumstance; sub-Sahara Africa is yet to fully plug into this movement. With a view to make recommendations on the ways forward for sub-Sahara Africa, this paper examines the current state of and the barriers to effective occupational mental health policy and practice in the region.
Highlights
There is an ongoing global discourse on the issue of mental health in the workplace and the focus had been on how countries are ensuring the prevention of mental stress in the workplace; facilitating unhindered access to curative and restorative care for work-related mental health problems, and incorporating workers who suffered mental health injuries in employee compensation schemes [1,2]
This was in view of sundry research findings that showed that mental health problems in the workplace affects productivity; encroach on profitability and take a higher toll on the economy than physical health problems
This finding was attributed to higher utilization of health resources, higher risk of absenteeism, and higher risk of job-turnover among sufferers of work-related mental health problems compared with physical health problems [5]
Summary
There is an ongoing global discourse on the issue of mental health in the workplace and the focus had been on how countries are ensuring the prevention of mental stress in the workplace; facilitating unhindered access to curative and restorative care for work-related mental health problems, and incorporating workers who suffered mental health injuries in employee compensation schemes [1,2]. The combination of high youth population and poor infrastructural capacity for industrialisation in many countries of sub-Sahara Africa create a situation for exploitative and unhealthy working conditions In such settings, the prevalence of occupational mental health problems are expected to be very high, bearing in mind that the social disadvantage associated with poor human development itself can constitute a perpetual mental health stressor in the first instance. It should be advocated that occupational mental health issues, including short industrial attachment, be incorporated into the training of Psychiatrists and allied professionals in the region This will ensure that every mental health practitioner in sub-Sahara Africa have basic practical knowledge of occupational mental health and is able to provide services in this regard. The extractive industries in sub-Sahara Africa where accidents are common and where most junior employees are sourced from local communities readily comes to mind
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