Mental health includes emotional, psychological and social wellbeing. It’s important that employers take employee’s mental health problem seriously and with the same care as a physical illness.
Acas have issued new guidance for employers and employees for handling reasonable adjustments for mental health at work.
The law (Equality Act 2010) says that employers must make reasonable adjustments for:
- workers
- contractors and self-employed people hired to personally do the work
- job applicants
Employers must make reasonable adjustments when:
- they know, or could reasonably be expected to know, someone is disabled
- a disabled staff member or job applicant asks for adjustments
- someone who’s disabled is having difficulty with any part of their job
- someone’s absence record, sickness record or delay in returning to work is because of, or linked to, their disability
Employers should try to make reasonable adjustments even if the issue is not a disability. Often, simple changes to a person’s working arrangements or responsibilities could be enough to help them stay in work and work well.
The guidance covers:
- What reasonable adjustments for mental health are
- Examples of reasonable adjustments for mental health
- Requesting reasonable adjustments for mental health
- Responding to reasonable adjustments for mental health requests
- Managing employees with reasonable adjustments for mental health
- Reviewing policies with mental health in mind