HASC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Thomas Hysler
Recognizing and prioritizing the mental health of employees is as critical as having regular conversations and training about physical safety in the workplace, said Dr. Thomas Hysler, chief medical officer for the Health & Safety Council (HASC).
A contract employee at a refinery had left the jobsite hastily and was acting oddly, Hysler recounted during HASC’s Industry Outlook Forum in Pasadena, Texas.
The site safety manager called Hysler and requested he talk to the employee before letting him back into the plant.
After meeting with him, Hysler learned that the employee was suffering from PTSD from military service. He experienced a crisis response, thinking Black Hawk helicopters were landing at the facility.
"It is a great example and poor example of what goes on in these jobsites that you probably don’t know because it’s in someone’s mind. And oftentimes the unfortunate truth about that is you’re going to see the fallout from that," Hysler said. "You’re going to see the injuries that result from it, you’re going to see the poor performance that happens and that is hard to grasp because you can’t fix it.
"You can give the most thorough training on hand safety over and over and over again. But if that employee comes to work and is depressed and forgets their gloves, resulting in a hand injury, there’s nothing you could have done about it. You’ve done all you could do to prepare the employee to do their job safely, but because they have some sort of mental illness, they’re going to get hurt."
Hysler said societal stigmas surrounding mental health often prevent those suffering from seeking help, and others from recognizing the signs.
This is common, he said, despite statistics showing that one in five adults — nearly 20% — experience mental health issues every year — with anxiety being the most prevalent.
"So just think, if you have 100 workers at a jobsite, 20 of them are suffering from a mental health issue right now that you don’t know about," he said. "You can be emotionally stable and coping and doing your job, going through life and doing great in relationships, but if you think your life is worthless, it’s probably not going to be okay for you."
Hysler said companies should be open about mental health benefits available to employees and be transparent about what the company pays for vs. what the employee is responsible for.
"I’ll bet if I ask, ‘does your health insurance cover you if you have appendicitis,’ you’d probably say, ‘yeah, 100%,’" he said. "We know that we’re going to cover a medical issue, but mental health issues are always kind of that big I don’t know. Where do I go? What do I do? Do they cover it 100%? There’s always some fuzziness around this topic."
Recognizing that someone needs help can be as simple as getting to know your coworkers and being aware of odd or changing behavior, Hysler said.
"You know your fellow co-workers; you know how they act and how they are. If something isn’t right, you notice it. Somebody notices it," he said. "So when we notice those things, we need to make sure we’re addressing them and not overlooking them. We talk about signs and symptoms of drug and alcohol abuse all the time, right? Someone’s impaired, we identify it. We take them out of the jobsite. We take care of it."
Hysler shared that there are a lot of signs and symptoms that are predictive of mental health issues that the audience should be aware of. "We should say, ‘Hey, what’s going on? I noticed you didn’t show up for three days. Everything okay at home?’"
By fostering a culture that values mental health as much as physical safety, companies can create a safer, more supportive workplace where employees can thrive.
