Recently, I was speaking with a friend that’s a team leader in a fast growing tech company. We were talking about COVID-19 and working from home. Her team were desperate to get back in the office. Working from home had them feeling disconnected and overwhelmed. As a result, productivity was down. Completely changing our way of living has been disruptive and discombobulating for many, leaving people feeling anxious, lonely and stressed.

In a recent UN report, “COVID-19 and the Need for Action on Mental Health” they state mental health of whole societies has been severely impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. Those affected most are frontline and healthcare workers, women, the sick, the elderly and children. An extended period of isolation and remote work is going to affect all of us in some way.

Now more than ever we need to be talking with our people one on one and learning about what their experience of working from home has been like and how they are feeling about a return to work. Many people that have worked well in lockdown are struggling with being on the brink of burnout as they have juggled home and work in the same space. Those that have not done well working from home are feeling more disconnected than ever.

Being responsive to the mental health needs of our people now is imperative. Investing in mental health interventions that can be delivered remotely, doing what we can to strengthen social cohesion and delivering human resource capacity to deliver mental health and social care are just some of the recommendations the UN makes.

Prior to COVID-19 the World Health Organisation predicted that “stress” would be our greatest challenge in the 21st century. Our stress levels had already increased by 45% in the last 30 years. Stress related absenteeism and presenteeism had been costing Australian employers $10.11 billion a year. The State of Workplace Mental Health in Australia report found that one in five Australians had taken time off work in the past 12 months because they felt stressed, anxious, depressed or mentally unhealthy. Sadly, mental health is one of the most neglected areas of health.

When addressing mental health many people think about psychology and counselling as the modalities to address it. There is no doubt they are the primary modalities to reach for and implement but there is also a role for supporting our biology, our foundations of health. When people aren’t sleeping well, eating well or exercising there is a direct impact on their mood and capability to deal with stress and pressure. There is now a whole area of research called Nutritional Psychiatry that explores the impact of diet quality on mental health. The research that is being conducted is now stretching into exploring the role of diet on our digestive health and how that plays an important part in how we feel and think too.

Taking a holistic approach to mental wellbeing needs to incorporate a multi modality approach. Yes provide the psychological therapy piece of the puzzle but when we explore and incorporate the biology, the mindset and implement those with positive habits we see positive behaviour change that helps people overcome their mental health challenges.