Mental health advocates commend the Personnel Office of the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) for its survey on mental health and encourage the organisation to continue bringing light to the issue.
However, they believe the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) was not as effective as it could be because of a lack of trust in the system.
The survey’s findings were discussed at the launch of a review of the EAP in the public service at the Hyatt Regency, Port of Spain, on Friday.
The survey participants were 1,207 public service workers, 79.1 per cent of women, 18.9 per cent men, and two per cent who identified as other, whose ages ranged from 18 to “over 65.”
The results said 52.8 per cent of participants believed the psychological well-being of staff was not prioritised by their employers and 60.7 per cent felt senior management did not consider the psychological health of employees to be of great importance.
Less than 50 per cent felt their contributions to resolving mental health concerns were taken into consideration by senior management and 58.4 per cent felt no participation and consultation took place with respect to psychological health and safety.
Former independent senator and founder of The Shelter Diana Mahabir-Wyatt told Newsday it was wonderful that the brought the issue of mental health to public attention, even though the sample size was relatively small.
“It gives the government the information it needs. Now, I want to know if they are going to act on it.”
She said one of the biggest industrial relations problems in the country was that employers and supervisors did not listen to workers or, if they are even asked, their views or opinions were not taken into consideration.
"It is really important that we know that the morale of people that we managers are leading, that they are happy and comfortable in the workplace. Because people work a lot better and a lot more efficiently if they're happy. And they're not going to be happy if they feel that their views don't matter.
"Now, having said that, I think we also have to take into consideration that managers are people and they are often not very happy either. And it's very hard to treat other people well when you are feeling anxious, disaffected and unhappy yourself."
In addition to work stresses, she said, people had to deal with spending hours in traffic on mornings and afternoons which meant they spent 12-16 hours a day away from their homes and families. They also have to deal with the frustration of pot holes, finding a parking space, travelling for those who did not have cars and much more.
She said that did not include things like floods, rising food prices, financial problems, crime, and having to care for elderly parents as well as children.
She suggested managers and supervisors be trained to recognise the signs of poor mental health, especially anxiety and depression.
"If managers don't recognise them (signs of mental illness), it can build up into grievances, insubordination, fighting on the job, poor performance, e
