We hardly think about what effect a poor or inadequate safety system could have on mental health. We are aware that it can physically harm, but a UK study published in May 2020 in Occupational Medicine journal indicates that inadequate or poor safety systems does have a negative effect on mental health.
Although the study was done on military personnel deployed on operations (a demanding situation) it would also help understand the impact of mental health of those working under similarly demanding situations (like in covid pandemic when it had just started in 2020).
When I heard of this study, I was wondering about the immense role an OH (Occupational Health) physician can play in mitigating this mental health risk. Employees as patients often prompt reasons for their complaint and the OH physician should be sensitive to those.
Poor safety systems are one of the determinants of mental health and all concerned (senior management, safety managers and OH physicians) should be aware of it and be sensitive to workers complaining about it.
There are many other situations in the hazardous or even non-hazardous industry when inadequate or poor safety systems often lead to industrial disasters like blasts, fires etc.
The study indicated that having inadequate safety systems is significantly associated with poor mental health including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and emotional problems for workers working in demanding situations.
Poor or inadequate safety systems are not just a safety risk that can harm workers due to blasts or fires but is a mental health risk too and should be mitigated to protect worker health.
The fear of working with poor or inadequate safety system impacts mental health that leads to impairment of ability to carry out the work safely often resulting in industrial accidents.
Industrial accidents can happen directly due to inherent poor safety systems per se as well as indirectly due to the mental health issues they bring about. Hence it is important to have robust safety systems at the workplace in the first place and a method to address concerns of employees regarding any poor or inadequate safety systems that they might rightly or wrongly encounter.
Occupational Health (OH) physicians working in the industry should be aware that employees who complain about poor equipment should not be ignored as they are at increased risk of mental health which in turn could impair their ability to carry out their role safely and lead to accidents.
The doctor should highlight complaints by the workers about poor equipment to the safety manager so that they be audited and upgraded if necessary to reassure workers thus preventing mental health issues and consequently minimizing chance of accidents.
An uncomfortable workplace or working condition giving an impression to the workers of being unsafe can be as threatening to workers as a demanding job and needs to be addressed to manage mental health.
Earlier research has shown that similar demanding situation occurred in healthcare settings like during the covid pandemic in its initial stages when healthcare workers were at increased risk of deteriorating mental health.
Risk such as these can have serious consequences to both staff and patients. The healthcare worker, in addition, is also at risk for burnout and depression. The hospital can have higher staff turnover leading to inconsistent health service. The hospital management should be aware of these risks and reassure the healthcare workers that steps are being taken to mitigate this risk by having robust safety processes and equipment in line with current global recommendations.
Robust safety systems are important as they can deter populations to invest in personal equipment that are unsafe, for example, the EVs (electric vehicles). If an EV catches fire, it deters people from buying them leading to financial losses to the company manufacturing it due to poor sales, litigation etc. and eventual closure of the company.
An uncomfortable workplace or working condition giving an impression to the workers of being unsafe can be as threatening to workers as a demanding job and needs to be addressed to manage mental health.
Poor safety systems are one of the determinants of mental health and all concerned (senior management, safety managers and OH physicians) should be aware of it and be sensitive to workers complaining about it.
The OH physician should be proactive in highlighting complaints from the workers regarding poor or inadequate safety system to the safety officer rather than ignoring them, to mitigate this often-neglected risk to mental health which has personal as well as mass-scale implications of illness and/or accidents.
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Dr Ajay Sati is an Occupational Health physician who prefers to describe himself as an Occupationist, to denote, ‘an expert in diseases and other concerns of occupations’. Dr Sati has managed health and wellness programs in industries he worked, like the atomic energy, and energy (oil & gas) in India and overseas. He was involved in many greenfield and brownfield projects providing inputs from health point of view. Known for SOPs and protocols, he is currently involved with a startup to make healthcare affordable.
