The back story

Mental illness is a leading cause of long-term workplace absence in most developed countries. Mental illness is also associated with high levels of presenteeism, where an employee remains at work despite symptoms that contribute to lower productivity. Therefore, addressing this issue in the workplace is a major economic, as well as health and personal matter.

Every year, around one in five of the population is suffering from symptoms of mental illness, most commonly depression and anxiety, but this also includes bipolar disorder and psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. In addition, many employees will be suffering from symptoms associated with mental ill health, such as worry, sleep problems and fatigue, which while not meeting the criteria for a diagnosed mental illness, will still affect their ability to function at work, especially in today's high pressure, stressful busy society. This creates costs to individuals, businesses, the economy and society in general.

“From my perspective, there isn’t a single person that walks this earth that isn’t affected by mental illness at some stage in their life…” Karen Bourke-Finn

Sustainable Me addresses these challenges to improve outcomes by providing a tailored workplace mental health program, through knowledge creation and dissemination and offers practical and sustainable strategies to build a healthy workplace.