Mental health conversations have been on the rise in recent years. And while it’s positive that there’s surging interest in the topic, its prevalence is due to the fact that many people are struggling with it.
The mental health levels of workers in Australia have declined to levels in line with the lows experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, over one-third of the workforce — fully 35 per cent — face a high mental health risk, while another 42 per cent are at moderate risk.
If people believe they aren’t cared for and their overall health prospects are poor, this can contribute to a downward spiral. That’s why it’s crucial for employers to understand mental health and take it seriously.
Here’s a closer look at mental health, and how it intersects with other elements of health to impact employee engagement, productivity and performance.
Holistic health: The intersection of employee mental, physical and financial wellbeingExplore the interconnected aspects of employee health and how they affect the performance of individuals and organisations alike. |
Though the term “mental health” is used frequently, it’s helpful to unpack what exactly it refers to. The Parliament of Australia defines mental health in the National Mental Health Plan as a state of emotional and social wellbeing in which a person can cope with the normal stresses of life and achieve their potential. The text also emphasises that mental health is not merely the absence of mental illness.
The World Health Organization (WHO) emphasises that mental health has intrinsic and instrumental value, enabling people to make decisions and build relationships — and it’s therefore defined as a basic human right. The Australian Department of Health and Aged Care describes mental health as a state of wellbeing that enables you to deal with life’s challenges. It is a feeling of resilience that allows people to enjoy life and connect with others while coping with stressors, staying productive at work, at home and in the community.
Too often, “psychological” and “physical” are seen as separate states — but the brain is part of the body, and mental and physical health affect one another in a myriad of ways. For example, it is well-established that depression is associated with heart disease and cardiac mortality. Results from the 2021 Census found that people who reported having mental illness were also more likely to report other long-term health conditions — most commonly arthritis, asthma and diabetes.
And researchers from the University of South Australia have called for exercise to be a mainstay approach in depression management based on recent study results that show physical activity is 1.5 times more effective than counselling or treatment with leading medications.
People experiencing financial challenges such as debt, economic and material disadvantage, long-term unemployment and need for income support are twice as likely to experience mental health challenges compared to those without these kinds of financial struggles. The reverse is also true: people experiencing mental health challenges are twice as likely to experience financial challenges such as major worsening of finances over the past year, unpaid bills, lack of emergency funds, socio-economic disadvantage and poorer perceived financial prosperity compared to those without mental health issues.
A survey of 1,000 Australians reflected that 46 per cent of respondents had their mental health impacted by the cost of living, and 75 per cent had lost sleep because of money-related stress. And according to the Columbia University Department of Psychiatry, a lack of adequate sleep has been shown to amplify negative emotional reactions to stress and reduce positive feelings.
In 2022-23, mental health conditions accounted for 10.5 per cent of all serious workplace injury claims . This represents a 19 per cent increase over the previous year and a 97 per cent rise over the last decade. It was the second-largest increase in all injury or illness claims, lagging just behind the serious claims related to infectious diseases — which was driven primarily by COVID-19.
Even well past the pandemic, anxiety and isolation are plaguing employees — for almost three years, they’ve been the lowest mental health sub-scores among Australian workers according to the January 2025 TELUS Mental Health Index.
Employers may want to listen. Almost one in four employees don’t perceive their workplace as supportive. The average mental health score of this group is more than 19 points lower than that of workers who report having a supportive workplace. Workers who don’t feel valued and respected by their colleagues and those who report their workplace is unsupportive are more than twice as likely to report that their mental health adversely affects their productivity at work.
The Australian Productivity Commission estimates that poor mental health cost the Australian economy AU$297 to AU$342 billion in 2023 and 2024 — AU$826 to AU$936 million per day. A significant piece of these costs is evident in the workplace; absenteeism, for example, and the costs of lost productivity and pay to cover absent workers cost an estimated AU$11.5 billion during that same time period.
At the same time, investments into mental health benefits and services can pay off for employers. In one survey, 52 per cent of workers rated the mental health benefits and services they received from their employer as excellent, and this group also boasts mental health scores that are at least three points higher than the national average.
Research from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) indicates that even within the context of the range of economic pressures that employers face, it is critical to provide support for mental health in the workplace. Specifically, they cite data showing that across Australia, taking effective actions that help reduce the impacts of mental health conditions through absenteeism, presenteeism and compensation by one-third leads to an average positive return on investment of 2.3.
In other words, for every dollar spent to successfully implement an appropriate action in support of employee mental health, there is on average AU$2.30 in benefits to be gained by the organisation through improved productivity and fewer claims.
Organisations should ensure employees not only have access to mental health support and services, but can access them on their own terms by making them easily available through digital channels at all hours of the day.
Designed specifically with employee mental health in mind, TELUS Health EAP extends mental health supports, work-life services and wellbeing engagement tools to both employees and their immediate families. Available anytime, anywhere via the TELUS Health One app, employees have access to professional counselling, content library and self-guided digital programs designed to help them navigate life’s challenges, transitions and milestones.
Learn more about the other factors and facets of holistic health, and how TELUS Health can help support both employers and employees.