HOME-TO-WORK stresses have implications for a person’s mental health. Conflicting work and home demands, lack of workplace support for personal commitments or lack of home support for work commitments may increase the risk of having mental health issues. ((World Health Organization, 2004). The physical working environment includes: (a) physical factors such as noise, pollution, and light, and (b) working hours. Irregular and excessive working hours can affect the circadian rhythms, and may lead to physical (insomnia, gastrointestinal problems) and behavioral (overeating, excessive alcohol use) problems.
Excessive working hours often lead to decreased efficiency (Université Laval, 2002). Culture on the work. The workplace’s organizational culture-communication, leadership and understanding of the workplace’s function and structure, can affect mental health (World Health Organization, 2004a). Some identified factors that cause mental health issues are the concepts of being overwork, getting low recognition, poor relationship with superiors, sustained mental effort, low participation in decision making, competitive climate, information provided are not clear, and insufficient information to do work.
Government has a vital role to play in improving employee mental health and in ensuring effective treatment of mental health problems. In the workplace, special attention is needed for women, children and persons with disabilities. Regulation will make a positive contribution to working people’s mental health. Employer, employee and nongovernmental organizations are important partners in supporting the mental health of workers and in preventing and addressing mental health issues. (www.who.int › mental_health › policy › workplace_policy_program).
Department of Education (DepEd), has already reported cases of suicides that are work-related. In her scholarly stay with DAP, Tagaytay, the Project Owner of a Capstone Project, in the development of a Mental Health Management Protocol, experienced scenarios that led to mental health issues, there was even a scholar from her batch, MMC Batch 21- Silhig, who was not able to make it because of mental health problems. The said scholar was even referred to St. Luke’s Hospital and was advised to stop from attending classes.
The capstone project owner believes that this Mental Health Management Protocol (MHMP) Operations Manual is very necessary to help those who wanted to identify the procedures that were undertaken in managing employees at risk of mental health issues. The different activities provided are properly arranged as they were carried out in the development of this capstone project. Sample documents, like memorandum, travel orders, designations, approved seminar-workshop activities with budget proposals were also included. Focus-group discussion activities during the validation phases were also considered.
