Mental illnesses in employees: Mental health should not be taboo

Mental health is a blind spot in social debate. Mental illnesses among young people in particular have increased during the corona pandemic. Overall, the proportion of days missed due to psychological suffering has also increased. Data also shows that the mental health of many people in Germany has deteriorated significantly since 2016. But unlike physical illnesses, talking about them is still too often seen as taboo. The damage to those affected is great, as mental illnesses often permanently reduce quality of life and life satisfaction. And the damage to the economy and social systems is also considerable. Additionally, mental health disparities in our society are significant. It is more vulnerable groups, especially young people, who suffer particularly severely psychologically during crises.

A number of new studies demonstrate the importance of mental health for our society and how it has developed over the past decades.

There is also surprisingly positive news. An analysis by DIW Berlin shows that mental health in Germany has definitely improved since 2000 – at least until 2016. What mental health means is defined very broadly in the study. Based on data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
DIW Berlin it is measured as an overall measure of various factors: mental and emotional well-being, functionality in everyday life as well as fears and worries about the present and future for yourself and your surroundings. This measure of mental health is clinically validated and also has scientific validity as to whether respondents have signs of, for example, depression.

The second piece of positive news is that inequality has fallen over time since 2000. People in West Germany still have significantly better mental health than people in East Germany, but the difference has almost halved in the last 20 years. Mental health inequality by educational attainment has also decreased over the years.

Women and people with a migrant background are more burdened

In contrast, the difference in mental health between men and women is not only very large in absolute terms, but it has hardly decreased in the past 20 years. And people with a migration history also have poorer mental health on average. Another negative aspect is that the developments described are always average measurements for larger groups. However, inequality within the groups may have increased significantly in some cases. Diagnosed depression rose by 26 percent between 2009 and 2017 and the diagnosis of burnout reached a record high in 2021.

What is also worrying is that the mental health of vulnerable groups is much more volatile and vulnerable. Especially in times of crisis such as the great recession in 2008 and 2009 and the first year of the pandemic in 2020, mental health among women and people with a migration background has become significantly worse. This result is consistent with those of other studies, which show that, for example, women were significantly more burdened by family and work during the pandemic than men. They also show that people with less income and poorer provisions have fewer opportunities to deal with and compensate for negative shocks to their living conditions in times of crisis.

Young people severely affected by crises

The new trend study Youth in Germany 2023 shows that young people in particular are severely affected by crises in terms of their mental health. Almost half of 14 to 29 year olds suffer from stress and a third from exhaustion and self-doubt. For comparison: among 50 to 69 year olds, only 20 percent suffer from stress.

The causes of changes in mental health are complex. Individual living conditions, fears and worries, economic developments and also social aspects such as social cohesion and participation all play a role. There is much to suggest that it is not developments in society as a whole or individual concerns and fears that are decisive for the inequalities described. Rather, what is crucial is the different skills and resources that people can mobilize to protect themselves against individual or collective shocks and crises. For example, young people are even less pessimistic and worried about the future than older people, but changes hit them harder in their psychological makeup.

Economic costs enormous

The costs of poor mental health are significant for those affected. They impair people’s functionality in daily life and often have a long-term negative impact on life satisfaction and happiness. But mental illnesses also have enormous economic costs. According to estimates, the directly measurable damage to the economy is 57 billion euros or 1.4 percent of annual economic output, caused primarily by absenteeism. In addition, health spending will increase and resources will be tied up in the health sector. Some employees have to take early retirement or experience reduced earning capacity due to mental illness, which causes considerable additional costs for those affected as well as for companies and social insurance companies. And these are just the direct costs – these calculations do not include so-called presenteeism, i.e. lost productivity caused by people who work despite psychological impairments but are unable to perform to their full potential.

It is important to break the taboo surrounding mental health and to take scientific findings more into account in the political and economic decision-making process. This includes urgently needed reforms in the health system to mobilize more specialist staff and resources for the prevention and treatment of mental illnesses. The 2023 trend study estimates that one in three young people needs help with mental health, but only one in ten actually receives it. Stronger public discourse and greater weight in policy decisions would be important, not only to limit the damage of crises, but also to return to positive mental health trends.