Employers should start catering for workers’ mental health
The issue of mental well-being of employees is one that needs to be put on the table for urgent discussion as well as seeking viable avenues to achieve it.
There are approximately one million suicides a year worldwide, and it is estimated that around six people are affected by each death.
Recently, popular House and EDM Deejay ‘DJ Lithium’, real name Alex Nderi is dead, after reportedly collapsing at the Capital FM offices where he worked.
According to Capital FM, the DJ was rushed to the Nairobi Hospital yesterday afternoon after collapsing at work.
The circumstances surrounding Alex’s death are a family matter which has been taken over by relevant authorities, the station’s management said and called on staff and the public to accord the family privacy.
“Alex was a great addition to the larger Capital FM team, encompassing great talent as a dj, producer and possessed an interesting” right wing” sense of humour,” Danny Munyi, Capital FM’s Programs Director said.
The factors contributing to suicide and its prevention are complex and not fully understood.
On the one hand, vulnerable individuals may be influenced to engage in imitative behaviors by reports of suicide, particularly if the coverage is extensive, prominent, sensationalist and explicitly describes the method of suicide.
For instance, journalist, by the nature of their work, are often in the frontline of dangerous situations in their quest to bring the news to audiences.
Grisly accidents of all sorts, macabre deaths, devastating natural and man-made disasters, visiting morgues to ascertain the number of those killed or at times attending a post-mortem.
Despite these conditions, it is alarming that not many newsrooms have in place strong measures to check the mental health of their journalists and workers.
The result is that some under distress resort to self medication which in many cases entails substance abuse, to the detriment of both the staffer and his/her employer.
With the current coronavirus pandemic, the need for quality mental health for journalists takes a more urgent turn.
