What real mental health support at work can look like

WORLD Mental Health Day falls on Saturday (Oct 10). This year’s theme is “Lived Experiences Heard: Real Voices, Real Change”, which emphasises the importance of listening to people and urging changes in policy and the workplace.

Despite increased awareness of mental health in Singapore, a critical question remains: Have we achieved pervasive, actual implementation of real and tangible support for people with mental health conditions in our workplaces?

The honest answer is no.

Stigma continues to be real and present. Many who live with – or suspect they have – a mental health condition do not dare to voice what they are experiencing.

And many still do not seek help, fearing backlash, unspoken bias or being quietly sidelined in the office.

Surprisingly, or perhaps not, this hesitation is deeply ingrained in our work culture. It was evident even within my organisation, the Singapore Association for Mental Health.

In a closed-door consultation I held with colleagues shortly after stepping into the role of CEO, most indicated they were unsure whether to share that they have a condition.

Some were afraid of the potential repercussions of being seen simply attending a session on mental health with the CEO, wondering whether confidentiality would truly be kept.

This took place even though I had openly shared my personal lived experience at a staff town hall just months prior.

The takeaway was sobering. If employees inside an agency devoted entirely to psychiatric recovery still wrestle with the vulnerability of being seen having mental health conditions, the silence inside our wider commercial workplaces must undoubtedly be profound.

Rather than dictating policy from behind a closed boardroom door, we used our workplace to figure out what real, practical support looks like on the ground. I sent an open note inviting staff to sit down with me to co-develop these guidelines together.

At the first discussion, only a handful stepped forward. There was genuine apprehension in the room. Before we could even talk about policy, my priority was simply allaying fear, reassuring colleagues that it was safe to be present and their perspectives were essential.

I shared some thoughts on flexible work arrangements, and heard their questions and concerns first-hand.

By the second meeting, word had travelled that it was a safe space, and that leadership genuinely wanted a mental health framework co-developed. We had new joiners at the meetings.

This time, the discussions went straight into the real, thorny issues: How do we evaluate performance fairly? How do we prevent supervisor bias during appraisals? What practical handles do middle managers need so they do not panic, overstep or judge?

We have our third session coming up soon. For us, pace is the focus, not speed. Giving staff the space and time to reflect and align is key.

Facilitated co-development, coupled with genuine team ownership, will ultimately make internal policies, especially those related to sensitive and personal matters, work.

Three operational changes

The Workplace Fairness Act, which will protect employees from being discriminated against based on mental health conditions, is set to be enforced in 2027. With this, corporate Singapore can no longer rely on superficial wellness perks or passive hotlines to signal support.

Grounded in what we have learned from our own internal journey, we propose that companies need to move from intent to action in three distinct operational levels.

First, there must be genuine buy-in at the leadership level. Company leaders need to see that a compassionate culture is not a soft human-resources exercise, but a standard staff-retention and sustained-performance strategy.

Top-level backing is necessary to establish clear procedural protection, such as a confidential safe-disclosure pathway in which an employee can request temporary adjustments, with the assurance that performance will be judged on output rather than face time, and that their career mobility will not be jeopardised.

Second, HR professionals need to establish structured, phased return-to-work protocols.

Consider a simple reality check: If an employee breaks a leg, they go to a doctor, take medical leave and return to daily activity gradually, as the leg heals. You would never expect them to run a marathon on their first day back at work.

A severe mental health condition warrants the exact same operational logic. Expecting someone recovering from clinical depression or severe burnout to jump straight back into an intense 45-hour workweek invites immediate relapse.

A practical return-to-work framework means maintaining light-touch contact during medical leave to agree on what colleagues are told regarding health accommodations, returning to work with reduced hours or lighter duties, and holding regular review check-ins to calibrate workloads before ramping up to, and resuming, full responsibilities.

Lastly, front-line supervisors and managers must be equipped with practical handles. This, I believe, will be the toughest part for most organisations.

Managers do not need to become counsellors or clinicians. Expecting them to diagnose or provide therapy is unrealistic and counterproductive.

What they need is the training and confidence to put across that performance remains the key assessment metric, while maintaining empathy and fairness in their reviews.

That means learning to spot early behavioural shifts, asking constructive workload-focused check-in questions and having clear referral boundaries, so they can connect struggling staff to professional support without awkwardness or fear.

Ultimately, moving from policy to practice will transform workplace well-being. Side effects from medication and the day-to-day realities of our conditions do not make us any less responsible; they are standard challenges along a recovery curve.

We all want to engage in meaningful, dignified work and be contributing members of the team.

When employees know their employer offers tangible structures to navigate human vulnerability, they are motivated to give their best. Slowly, stigma will be reduced, and hopefully, eliminated.

The writer is CEO of the Singapore Association for Mental Health