Third of sick days due to mental health

UP to a third of long-term sickness absence in Birmingham and Solihull could be due to mental health issues, new data suggests.

Charities said the revelation showed the “huge impact” poor mental health had on the economy as well as individuals.

They called for more investment in primary health services and warned there was still “a long way to go” in terms of employers focusing on wellbeing in the workplace.

NHS figures show a total of 91,769 “fit notes” were written by doctors in Birmingham and Solihull between January and September last year.

Despite the name, those are doctors’ notes which are required if someone needs to take more than seven days off sick. In more than 90 per cent of cases, they confirm someone is unfit for work.

Some 41,224 of those “fit notes” included a code specifying what the disorder was that had caused the note to be written.

In 14,110 cases (34 per cent of the total) the cause was “mental and behavioural disorders”.

That compares to just 7,088 cases where the causes was “musculoskeletal” – pain or other problems relating to muscles or bones.

Mental and behavioural disorders include common conditions like depression, anxiety and stress.

An estimated one in six people are believed to suffer from some form of mental ill-health.

Emma Mamo, of mental health charity Mind, said: “These figures are another reminder of the huge impact that poor mental health is having not just on people’s lives, but on the economy as a whole.

“They show the importance of employers promoting workplace wellbeing and also of the need for the strengthening of primary care services so that people are less likely to take long-term absence from work.”