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A clinical psychologist at the Eastern Regional Hospital, Akosua Serwaa Bonsu, has urged employers to take stress management seriously to ensure the well-being of employees.
Equally, she called for serious attention to be given to the mental health needs of young people, especially students.
According to her, it was important for human resource officials in organisations to offer opportunities for talks with employees that guaranteed their privacy and confidentiality, and also inquire about their psychosocial stressors for prompt intervention
Ms Bonsu, who is also the Health Coordinator of the hospital, made the call at the inauguration of an 11-member executive body of the Human Resource Alumni Association of the All Nations University (ANU) in Koforidua, the Eastern Regional capital, last Wednesday.
The executives, whose tenure of office is two-years, are to take students through psychological and mental issues to enable them to successfully go through their various programmes at the university.
The clinical psychologist urged human resource officials to remember that anyone could be vulnerable or marginalised at any point in life.
“Therefore, they must give special consideration in specific situations and groups, ensure their own protection while offering practical help or support to others, know their limits and offer help accordingly.
“Also, they must follow up after referring employees to other people or specialists for support,” she said.
Expatiating on students’ mental health, the clinical psychologist said the mental health challenges in the country were youth-related.
She, therefore, called for quick attention.
She added that behavioural addiction among students, such as betting, watching pornographic materials and the counter-productive use of the internet were compounding the issues.
Ms Bonsu said one's ability to handle normal stresses might determine whether the person had good mental health or not.
According to her, some might have high level of mental health, others might be medium while others might have lower mental health.
"What all this means is that if one is able to handle these normal stresses properly, then one’s mental health is good but when one is unable to positively handle some normal stresses, then it means they have a lowered sense of mental health", she stated.
The Head of the Department of Human Resource Management of the university, Dr Priscilla Bempah Botwe, said statistics indicated that 77 per cent of college students worldwide experienced moderate to severe psychological distress, with 35 per cent diagnosed with anxiety and 20 per cent with depression.
She said as human resource personnel, they were to bring hope to students going through psychological distress.
She said human resource intervention could help address the development.
Dr Botwe said the idea of establishing the alumni association had been on the department's agenda for years and that the inauguration of the alumni on the theme: "Mental Health and Well-being; The Role of HR professionals”, marked a great milestone in the history of the department and the university as a whole.
She expressed her appreciation to the academics and all those who helped in making the formation of the association a reality.
The vice-president in charge of Academics and Students Affairs of the University, Dr Carlena Kyeremeh, who chaired the event, said as experts in the field, human resource officers needed to guide organisations towards maintaining transparency, resilience and flexibility to help meet employee needs.
She asked the executives to increase networks and deepen relationships, promote professional competence and leadership
The president of the Human Resource Alumni Association, Francis Tetteh, assured the department of the association's support to make it vibrant for the benefit of students.
He said the Human Resource Department had evolved into one of the university's leading academic units with a bold vision to promote quality higher education that would enhance graduates ability to advance in HR management in the corporate world.
