In its move to have productive staff, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Foundation Plc has taken a stand to tackle mental health challenges, most especially at workplace.
Speaking at the bank’s “Mental Health Awareness Week” in Lagos, the Chairman of the Foundation, Kennedy Uzoka challenged organisations and bodies to tackle mental well-being at the workplace.
Uzoka said mental well-being is something that everyone knows but nobody wants to talk about it because people think it is bad.
According to him: “From my experience, I have seen people with mental health challenges that wear suits & skirts to work.
“COVID-19 has brought out the hidden side of most of the people. I decided to take it on so that people should not hide and be free to express their challenges.
“I’m sure similar institutions and bodies will lash on this initiative. We need to tackle mental health challenges, especially at the workplace. We can only get good productive staff when things are done properly and no side challenges.
“We decided to do this awareness program to orchestrate and solve mental health problems people run away from and that is a reality.
“I’m happy the awareness has started and we are going to reach different levels because we have over 20,000 staff across the globe.”
The Director, Group Human Resources, UBA, Patricia Aderibigbe, during the panel of discussion expressed wellness is very important to the Pan-African bank.
She highlighted different types of mental well-being that include, career well-being, social well-being, physical well-being, and community well-being.
Speaking further, she said: “organisations now understand that they have a role to play. Someone can be present at work but mentally ill, so, organisations lose more from presence than absence. COVID-19 has made mental health issues more glaring. It is a journey and we are not there yet.”
A panelist, a consultant psychologist, Angel Yinkore said, everyone has daily stressors that they cope with. She identified different types of mental issues as mental distress, mental illness and mental disorders.
