Two in five don’t trust their employer to prioritise mental health

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Nearly two in five office workers have little or no trust in their organisation’s ability to treat their mental health as a priority, according to global research that exposes a gap between what employers promise and what they achieve when it comes to mental health support.
Although employees generally felt organisations had taken positive action to improve physical health since the start of the pandemic, research from healthcare and benefits provider Aetna International found that many still believed their mental health was not being prioritised in the way they had hoped.
While 36% said their employer’s communications around mental health issues had been “good” over the past year, only 25% said the same about the concrete steps that had been taken to support mental wellbeing.
This is in sharp contrast to the previous year’s survey, which found that 52% rated their employer’s support for mental health as “good”.
Thirty-eight per cent of the 3,520 office workers polled said they had little or no trust in their employer’s capacity to treat their mental health as a priority.

“Over the last year and certainly throughout the pandemic, businesses have been much more vocal about the importance of employee health and wellbeing,” David Healy, CEO, Europe, at Aetna International said.
“However, many workers still feel that their mental health is not as important to their employer as their physical he