Supporting the Mental Health of Factory Workers
Mental health awareness is becoming more prevalent in the workplace, but there’s still a long way to go, particularly in factories. This is true, whether you are a worker at Toyota in Georgetown, KY, or for Yokohama in Versailles. Factory employees work long hours in stressful conditions. If you’re a factory worker struggling with mental health issues, you can seek assistance and find improvement. Factory employers can contribute by making needed beneficial changes.
Mental Health Issues Factory Workers Face
Working in a factory can be a long, draining, and repetitive process that can easily take a toll on your mental health. The long hours, the pressure to work faster to meet parts requirements and quotas, the financial difficulties that arise if those quotas aren’t met, working under managers with unrealistic expectations, and the lack of time with family can all exasperate the situation. These elements, and more, can lead to high levels of stress, lack of sleep, depression, anxiety, and dependence on drugs or alcohol.
Not only do these mental health issues affect home life and quality of life, but they negatively affect the workplace. Mental health issues reduce job performance, increase workplace accidents, decrease attendance, heighten employee turnover, and damage a worker’s ability to complete tasks. It’s in an employer’s best interest to support their worker’s mental health.
Ways Employers Can Provide Mental Health Support to Factory Workers
Mental health has as great an impact on a worker’s ability to do a job well as any physical ailment, like the flu or a broken leg. Employers can make an impact by improving their mental health awareness and supporting their employee’s mental health. In return, they’ll have employees who are committed to their job, take pride in their work, have fewer incidents, and create an enjoyable work culture.
In a factory setting, it’s difficult to offer shorter hours, change shifts, or swap responsibilities. Instead, employers can make the biggest difference within employee benefits. Benefits that can combat stress, anxiety, and depression, and improve physical health, include:
- Providing a gym membership or fitness reimbursement to give employees the opportunity to work on physical fitness without financial hardship.
- Offering time off that doesn’t take away from vacation days or sick days.
- Covering a specified number of paid counseling or therapy hours every month.
Using Therapy or Counseling to Support Mental Health
Kentucky Factory workers like those at Toyota in Georgetown or Yokohama in Versailles, KY, can greatly benefit from counseling. Not only does it improve personal mental health awareness and help with issues ranging from depression to substance abuse, but talking with a mental health specialist can also lead to a better home life, better relationships with friends and co-workers, and reduced stress. All of these improve quality of life, which can also lead to greater physical health.
Get Help Today
If you or a loved one work in a factory and are struggling with mental health or substance use disorder, seek help.
Reach out to Central Kentucky Addiction Treatment. Our friendly staff will help figure out your needs and schedule an appointment with Dr. Alicia Leslie. She sees patients struggling with substance addiction, sex addiction, gaming addiction and more.
Central Kentucky Addiction Treatment proudly serves the area surrounding Danville Kentucky, as well as Central Kentucky and Southern Kentucky.
