2016 CWU Conference Joint Health and Safety, Equality, and Youth Departments Fringe Meeting Report – “Time to Change”. “Mental health problems affect one in four people. It’s time to end the stigma and find solutions.”
To: All Branches
Dear Colleagues,
Over one hundred and seventy Communication Workers Union delegates and visitors packed the CWU Joint Equality, Health and Safety and CWU Youth Fringe Meeting at the CWU’s annual conference in Bournemouth on Monday 25th April 2016.
Linda Roy, CWU National Equality Officer, opened the meeting and welcomed the Guest Speaker – Sarah Restall, Employer Manager for Time to Change – a campaign to end the stigma and discrimination that people with mental health problems face in England.
Simon Sapper, CWU Youth Officer, spoke about stigma and discrimination of mental health and during his speech quoted Hubert H. Humphrey who said: “It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.”
Dave Joyce CWU National Health, Safety and Environment Officer, praised the collaborative approach of the three departments in the CWU on the first ever joint fringe meeting on the subject of work-related stress and mental health, which for Unions and their members is now a huge issue which the Health, Safety and Environment Department has been concentrating a lot of effort pursuing the strategy set out in Motion 37 (2015). Dave said that Stress, Anxiety and Work-related Mental ill-health is a growing problem. Huge increases in suicide and a similar huge increase in numbers on anti-depressant drugs make this a big issue for Trade Unions and the CWU is at the apex of the drive for action to tackle the problems of:-
stigma
lack of support for victims
awareness raising
Dave quoted the Royal College of Psychiatrists who report that:-
Anxiety will affect 10% of the population
Bipolar Disorder will affect 1 in 100
1 in 150 girls under 15 will be anorexic
20% of the population will become depressed
OCD will affect 2%
Personality Disorder will affect 1 in 10
Schizophrenia will affect 1 in 100
1 in 4 will experience mental health problems – moving towards 1 in 3
Dave reminded the delegates to refer to LTBs 58/16, 59/16, 64/16, 66/16 and in particular 166/16.
Dave Joyce concluded that the CWU has worked with leading Mental Health Charities ‘MIND’ and ‘Re-Think Mental Health’ who together launched “Time To Change” and confirmed the CWU’s support for “Time to Change.” He said the CWU has signed the “Time To Change” Pledge Charter with both Royal Mail and with BT and CWU has supported “Time To Talk” Day.
Linda Roy introduced Sarah Restall who explained that Time to Change is run by the charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, with funding from the Department of Health, Comic Relief and the Big Lottery Fund.
Sarah Restall said we all have mental health, just as we all have physical health. It exists on a spectrum and people can move up and down from good to poor for any number of reasons. And it’s important we take care of both to promote our overall wellbeing. We can all get mental health problems too. Actually, she said, they might be more common than you think. One in four of us will be affected by a mental health problem in any given year. They are as real as a broken arm, and they can have a greater effect on everyday life – even though there isn’t a sling or plaster cast to show for it. By 2020, depression will be the second most common cause of ill health worldwide. And yet it remains one of the biggest taboos in society today.
Sarah then went on to explain that 1 in 4 of us will experience a mental health problem in any given year, 1 in 6 workers is dealing with anxiety, depression or stress and research shows that work tends to be the most stressful factor in people’s lives. 40% of employers view workers with mental health problems as a ‘significant risk’ – mental health is a concern.
Sarah went on to say that Mental health problems among workers cost the UK economy between £70–£100 billion per year, or 4.5 per cent of GDP, eight in ten employers have no mental health policy to help staff sustain good mental health and while stress has forced 1 in 5 workers to call in sick, 95% gave a different reason to their boss. Sarah said that managers want to do more to improve staff mental wellbeing but they need more training and guidance. She said that staff would feel more loyal and committed if their employer took action on staff wellbeing.
Sarah said that a major cause of stigma and prejudice is that people don’t talk about it. She said that 9 out of 10 people who experience mental health problems say they face stigma and discrimination as a result and that 60% of people said that stigma and discrimination are as damaging as or more damaging than the symptoms of their mental health problem. 35% of respondents said that stigma had made them give up on their ambitions, hopes and dreams for their life and 27% said stigma had made them want to give up on life.
Sarah said that 98 Employee Champions signed up to share their lived experiences and help support others in their workplace and said the organisation have worked with 60 Pledge Alumni to help them continue and develop their work including: Everton FC. Anglican water, Deloitte, Mars, Royal Mail, TFL, O2, L&G, Imperial College, Bank of England and Pepsi Cola.
A short Q and A session discussed the issues raised by the presentation and questions were answered by Sarah and Dave Joyce.
Linda Roy thanked everyone who attended the meeting particularly Sarah Restall for her excellent presentation.
Yours sincerely
Dave Joyce Linda Roy
National Health, Simon Sapper National Equal
Safety & Environment Officer National Youth Officer Opportunities Officer
Email Attachments – Click to download
Attachment 1 – 16LTB267 2016 CWU Conference Joint Health and Safety, Equality, and Youth Departments Fringe Meeting Report.docx
CWU Eastern No5 Branch 
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