A certain segment of the public considers those who struggle with their mental health to be weak. To a larger extent the public considers those diagnosed with a mental illness to be even weaker. Mental health is undeniably a stigmatized topic to discuss about especially in the workplace. A webinar was conducted by the students of UiTM titled “Issues in Human Resource Management” and one of our lecturers and from the Faculty of Health Sciences (FOHS) MAHSA University was invited to be a guest speaker for the webinar.
Ms. Wan Adibah Nadiah, a lecturer and clinical psychologist from FOHS, was invited as a guest speaker for the webinar that was conducted on the 6th January 2023. One of the issues brought forward in human resource management is employee well-being; specifically, employee’s mental health. Ms. Nadiah highlighted this issue by giving the participants a crash course on what is meant by mental health and how employees or staffs are immediately affected.
She covered everything an employee could go through in terms of their mental health; from the definition of mental health until the processes of seeking professional help. The webinar had over 200 participants who showed tremendous interest in the topic Some questions were even raised by the participants regarding employee’s mental health; such as what is the best way for an employer to support employee’s mental health and what to do when a co-worker is going through burnout. A few questions were even brought up regarding toxic masculinity at the workplace and how to deal with it.
Overall, the webinar was eventful and very educational. Mental health remains to be an important topic to discuss about, especially in the workplace. Thus, to counter the stigma of mental health, it should be talked about more often and employers and staffs should educate themselves more about it. Because at the end of the day, poor mental health among employees could lead to poor productivity and job performance. The more the conversations around mental health happens the less stigma employees will feel surrounding them.
FOHS congratulates Ms Nadiah on being invited to share her insights at the Webinar organized by UiTM Malaysia. MAHSA University hopes that our lecturers will continue to contribute and participate in academic forums at both national and international level.
