The seventh webinar in the HR Masterclass series gathered more than 250 HR personnel in the session held last August 18, 2020 with the topic “Mental Health In The Workplace”.
With the vision of bringing together human resource leaders from various industries, HR Nation Philippines invited Asec. Teresita Cucueco, MD. MOH. FPCOM. CESO II, OIC-Assistant Secretary in the Department of Labor and Employment and the Director IV at the Bureau of Working Conditions to discuss the importance of maintaining a good state of mental health in the workplace.
Mental health has been considered as one of the burning issues in the workplace today especially during this time of the pandemic. This topic should be one of the top priorities industries must continue to monitor given the current situation people are facing.
To begin the discussion, Asec. Teresita Cucueco outlined what mental health is. According to her, Mental Health is the state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential to cope with normal stresses of life, work productively and fruitfully, and to be able to be productive members of the society and make contributions to the community.
As part of the government’s initiatives addressing mental health concerns in the workplace in partnership with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Department Order No. 208, Series of 2020 or also known as the Implementation of Mental Health Workplace Policies And Programs For the Private Sector was signed into law last February.
It is under RA 11036 entitled as An Act Establishing a National Mental Health Policy for the Purpose of Enhancing the Delivery of Integrated Mental Health Services, Promoting and Protecting the Rights of Persons Utilizing Psychiatric, Neurologic, Psychosocial Health Services, Appropriating Funds Therefor, and for other Purposes. It is otherwise known as “The Mental Health Act”.
Such is created to build guidelines and standards on evidenced-based mental health programs in workplace as well as develop policies that promote mental health in the workplace and address stigma and discrimination suffered by people with mental health conditions.
The salient features of the Mental Health Act are as follows:
- It makes treatment available at all levels of national health system.
- It is the total integration of mental health service into the country’s healthcare system.
- It requires the government agencies to spread awareness in schools and workplaces.
- It requires mental health professionals, workers, and other service providers to undergo capacity building, reorientation, and training.
- It creates the Phillipine Council for Mental Health.
- It provides penalties for violations.
This provides persons with mental health condition of these rights:
- Humane treatment.
- Free from discrimination and stigmatization.
- Exercise social, political, religious inherent rights.
- Confidentiality of all information.
- Access to mental health services at all levels.
- Participate in mental health advocacy, planning, and legislation.
- Give informed consent before receiving treatment.
- Appoint legal representatives.
This also comes with enumerating the duties and responsibilities of the government agency responsible which is the DOLE, as well as the duties and responsibilities of the employers and the workers.
Asec.Teresita Cucueco ended her talk with words of encouragement for each and everyone as to how we can all remove the stigma and be responsible human beings contributing to the coordinated efforts of the government and the industries in providing a caring and stress-free environment for everybody.
Founder and CEO of Salarium, Judah Hirsch, shared his insights on mental health in the workplace from the C-level executive perspective. According to him, mental health should be greatly addressed especially these days and it is something no company should be ashamed and afraid to talk about.
Salarium as a platform has helped many companies across various industries and is still looking forward to extending their service to more companies and help them focus on more pressing issues by providing a cloud-based software system which enables them to monitor their employees’ attendance real-time, whether they work remotely or on-site.
During these trying times, Salarium was able to provide a solution that’s complete from timekeeping to payout which has helped businesses kickstart their thriving face in the new normal. This is especially done with the help of their new product, a touchless time and attendance system.
Trusted by more than 600 companies throughout the country, Salarium is looking forward to helping you in your next step towards digitization.
Download Asec. Teresita Cucueco’s presentation here: Department Order 208 Mental Health Workplace Guidelines
Download Judah Hirsch’s presentation here: Presentation of Judah – HR MasterClass
