Morneau Shepell, a leading provider of total wellbeing, mental health and digital mental health services, released its monthly Mental Health Index™ report, making August the fifth consecutive month of negative mental health scores, with feelings of financial risk and isolation continuing to be the top drivers of British employees’ mental health.
HR Technology News: UZIO a leader in HCM technology provider Introduces Uzio Legal in partnership with myHRcounsel™
After a period of slow but steady improvement from April through July, the Mental Health Index™ score declined in August across all regions in the United Kingdom, with the biggest decline occurring in Wales (-2.3) and Northern Ireland (-2.2). Overall, women continue to have lower mental health scores than men, Britons identifying as South Asian have significantly lower mental health scores than other racial groups and mental health scores for all groups tend to improve with age.
HR Technology News: TecHRseries Interview with Gianni Giacomelli, Chief Innovation Officer at Genpact
The Mental Health Index™ for August is -13, which measures a decline in mental health from the pre-2020 benchmark of 75, and lower than the previous month by one point. The Mental Health Index™ also tracks sub-scores against the benchmark, measuring optimism (-17.1), depression (-16.0), anxiety (-16.0), work productivity (-12.7), isolation (-12.2), general psychological health (-5.0) and financial risk (5.2). All but two sub-score areas experienced declines, with the exception of financial risk, which improved 1.4 points from July, and work productivity, which remained nearly the same as in July (a slight 0.1 improvement). The most significant negative changes were in isolation and depression.
“While the United Kingdom has so far been relatively successful at slowing spread of COVID-19, the uncertainty and economic stress has negatively impacted the quality of life and mental health of many British employees and their families,” said Philip Mullen, managing director, U.K. and Europe. “While Britons are being encouraged to return to work and schools across the country are scheduled to reopen this fall, many British employees have experienced a dip in general morale. The prolonged nature of the strain is a major concern, and a risk for longer-term health and productivity.”
HR Technology News: TecHRseries Interview with Josh Millet, Founder & CEO at Criteria