Work and mental health - Doreen M. Miller

Work-related mental ill health, or 'stress' in the common shorthand, is the major health and safety issue for most employers in the Western world. In the UK alone more than 6.5 million working days are lost each year at a cost to companies of almost 400 million.

The cost to society in human as well as financial terms is greater still and the latter has been estimated at some 3.75 billion annually.

Forward-looking organisations have been seeking not just to control these costs but to establish working systems that positively enhance mental health. The drivers for commercial organisations have not, in the main, been philanthropic but rather the recognition that mental well-being is a critical factor in peak performance - improvements in organisational health show up on the bottom line.

Work and Mental Health draws on the expertise of a wide range of health professionals with practical experience of mental health in the workplace. Both clinical problems and organisational issues are addressed and many practical examples are given of what can be done in an occupational setting to benefit individuals and the companies they work for. This is a text written by practitioners not just for fellow practitioners but also for human resources and management professionals and a wide range of colleagues in business who are trying to grapple with this 21st-century 'epidemic'.