Mental-health needs higher in recession

(Tallahassee.com, Will Brown, June 1, 2009) The workplace is filled with stressful land mines, especially as companies announce furloughs, corporations slash employee pay and state agencies lay off workers in the coming weeks. Managing that stress is critical not only to production, but one's mental health, said Melvina MacDonald, director of the Employee Assistance Program at Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare. "We still in our country have some stigma about mental-health issues," MacDonald said. She used as an example the Employee Assistance Program that's offered in workplaces. "Such programs help people deal with all kinds of issues including mental health, and they don't need to come forward to anyone in the workplace," she said. Earlier this year, Wayne Hochwarter, the Jim Moran Professor of Management at Florida State University's College of Business, found more than 70 percent of men and women stated the recession has significantly increased the stress levels of employees. (Read the entire article.)