Mental health at work: are we trying to fix people too quickly?

When someone is struggling with their mental health at work, the instinct is often to get them help as quickly as possible.

That sounds entirely sensible. Early intervention matters. The sooner someone can access appropriate support, the better.

But there is a danger in confusing speed of access with speed of recovery.

For employers, particularly large and complex organisations, supporting someone back into work isn't simply a case of putting them through a set number of counselling sessions and expecting the problem to be resolved. Mental health is rarely that straightforward and neither are the circumstances that contribute to it.

At Phillips Wellbeing, we believe the question shouldn't simply be how quickly can we get someone back to work? It should be what support does this person need to return to work safely and sustainably?

The scale of the challenge

The pressure on organisations to tackle mental-health-related absence is considerable.

Welsh Government's own 2024–25 accounts recorded 46,357 working days lost to sickness absence, with 16,459 of those days attributed to mental health. Mental health was the organisation's leading cause of absence, accounting for 35% of all sickness absence.

Across NHS Wales, the picture is similar. The average sickness absence rate was 6.4% in 2025, while anxiety, stress, depression and other psychiatric illnesses accounted for 34.9% of sickness absence in the final quarter of the year.

These aren't simply HR statistics. Every absence represents a person who may be struggling, a team that may be under additional pressure and an organisation that has to manage the operational and financial consequences.

So how do we respond?

Counselling isn't one-size-fits-all.

Counselling can be hugely valuable. But the way support is structured matters. A fixed programme of six sessions delivered over six to eight weeks might work very well for some people. For others, it may simply not fit the reality of their situation.

People have different needs, different circumstances and different reasons for being away from work. They may have medical appointments, caring responsibilities, employment tribunals or other commitments that make a rigid programme difficult to navigate.

And even where someone completes a course of counselling, that doesn't necessarily mean the underlying problem has been addressed.

If someone returns to exactly the same workplace, the same pressures and the same management challenges that contributed to their absence in the first place, we shouldn't be surprised if they struggle again.

The objective should be sustainable recovery, not simply completing a programme.

The missing piece: managers

One of the most effective ways organisations can improve mental health support may not be another external service at all.

It may be investing in the people who are already closest to their employees: managers.

Middle managers are often the first people to notice that something isn't right. They see changes in behaviour, performance, attendance and engagement. They are also frequently the people employees approach when they are struggling.

Yet managers aren't expected to be counsellors, psychologists or mental-health professionals.

They do, however, need the confidence and skills to have good conversations, recognise when someone may need additional support, understand the options available to them and know when a situation needs to be escalated.

Sometimes the most effective intervention isn't complicated. It might be giving someone the opportunity to talk. It might be understanding what is motivating them, identifying a manageable next step or making a small change to the way their work is structured.

These are basic principles of good management, but in an increasingly complex workplace they can sometimes get lost.

We don't necessarily need to spend more

There is an assumption that improving workplace mental health inevitably means spending more money. We don't necessarily agree.

For large organisations in particular, the opportunity may be to look differently at how existing resources are used.

Rather than treating mental-health support as a standalone service that sits alongside the organisation, we need to think about how managers, HR teams, occupational health providers, counselling services and wellbeing programmes work together.

That means looking at the whole journey, from the first signs that someone is struggling, through intervention and support, to their return to work and what happens afterwards.

It means asking whether the right support is being provided at the right time.

And crucially, it means recognising that different people need different things.

A more human approach

There is no question that public services and employers are under pressure to deliver efficient, measurable services. But efficiency shouldn't come at the expense of humanity.

Someone experiencing poor mental health isn't a process to be completed within a particular timeframe. They are an individual, and their circumstances may be complicated.

The best workplace mental-health strategies recognise both sides of the equation.

They understand the commercial cost of absence and the importance of getting people back to work. But they also recognise that a sustainable return is more valuable than a quick one.

For employers, the goal should be simple: keep people well where possible, intervene early when they aren't, and give them the right support to return safely when they need time away.

We don't need to spend more simply for the sake of it.

We need to spend more intelligently, equip managers to play their part and build support around the individual rather than expecting the individual to fit the system.

Because when it comes to workplace mental health, humane and commercially effective shouldn't be opposing goals. They should be the same thing.

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