Clinical psychologist Dr Chua Sook Ning, founder of NGO Relate Malaysia, said it is crucial to identify psychological stressors and change workplaces to minimise them.
“This emphasises that mental health at work is not just an individual concern but an organisational responsibility,” she told FMT.
Chua, who has a PhD in clinical psychology, called for guidelines and policies that support people with mental health conditions and promote an enabling work environment.
“These guidelines should be done in consultation with employees to ensure the policies are responsive to their needs,” she said.
She was responding to a recent remark by public service department director-general Wan Ahmad Dahlan Abdul Aziz that more than 40,000 civil servants were at high risk of psychological health problems that required immediate intervention.
Dr Victor Goh, the head of Help University’s psychology department, acknowledged that some areas of work were naturally more stressful than others, with customer/patient-facing industries tending to report the highest levels of stress.
“(These include) teachers, doctors, nurses, firemen, policemen and government servants in general who face and service the rakyat.
“Employers have to be realistic and say that stress is part of their jobs. But it doesn’t mean they cannot do anything and that the employees just need to ‘tahan’ (endure),” said Goh, who has a PhD in applied psychology focused on industrial and organisational research.
Goh said workplaces should provide employees adequate resources to manage their mental health, including job benefits such as access to mental health therapy and the acceptance of mental health medical certificates in leave applications.
He bluntly pointed to increasing salaries as a way to stave off mental health problems.
“Of course, the root of it is more money. Interestingly, money has been found to be a significant predictor of mental health in a lot of industries.
“Workers with lower financial independence often report higher instances of mental health problems in the workplace.
“Dollar-for-dollar, increasing someone’s salary up to the mean/median of comfortable living is more effective than actually providing therapy,” he said.