Councils risk losing productivity due to a rise in mental health
problems among local government workers, research suggested today.
The number of working days lost due to depression, stress and
tiredness among town hall employees increased by 45% in April to June
2009 compared to the same period in 2008, according to private absence
management provider Active Health Partners (AHP).
The rise was described as "startling" because the number of workers
in other sectors taking time off for mental health reasons has
decreased in the past year.
From a database of 30,000 workers across the public and private
sector, the number of working days in local government lost to mental
health problems in spring 2009 was 1,211, compared to 832 for the same
period in 2008.
AHP - which aims to help employers reduce absence by directing
workers to a nurse contact centre when they ring in sick - warned that
councils needed to "carefully monitor" the level of workers taking time
off.
A mental health risk profile, known as the Simple Risk Estimate
(SRE), calculated by multiplying the frequency of absence by the mean
number of days of absence, was 47.32 for local government workers in
spring 2009 compared with 39.98 in spring 2008.
AHP chief executive Bruce Robinson said: "Although the latest SRE of
47.32 for mental health in the government sector has not yet reached
50, the point at which we consider absence to be a significant problem
to an industry, it is creeping closer and therefore needs to be
carefully monitored.
"The decrease in mental health absences across other sectors could
be linked to the current climate as employees concerned about their
jobs are battling through the stressful periods.
"This may well mean we can anticipate an increase in absence over the coming months due to stress as workloads become too much."
The risk profile for mental health absences across all other sectors decreased by 19% over the same period.
The figures were taken from the absence data of 30,000 workers in
the private and public sector, including housing associations,
transport and logistics, and manufacturing, recorded by AHP's nurse
contact centre.
Employees in companies that use AHP are directed to report any
absence to a call centre staffed with nurses, who then notify the
worker's line manager and keep tabs on the employee's medical progress.
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