World Mental Health Day Walkathon: A Call to Prioritize Employee Well-Being in Pune
Pune, 10th October 2024: Fostering and promoting better mental health at work is urgent. Recent studies have amplified the need for urgent attention to this issue. Taking this seriously, city-based NGO Connecting Trust has organized a Walkathon to draw the masses’ attention to this issue.
The event will take place on Sunday, 13th October 2024, between 4 PM and 6 PM.
Recent studies about mental health have underlined the need to take care of the mental health of the employees, especially how the workplace itself impacts the employees. The following are some insightful data points from 2 recent research studies. – “The Silent Struggle – How Mental Health Impacts the Indian Workforce”, a study conducted by market research firm IPSOS, covering 3,000 employees across 10 sectors and eight Indian cities in 2023, reveals every 1 out of 2 corporate employees are at risk of poor mental health. The same proportion strongly agree that stress impacts their productivity at work. Mental health and well-being were considered important by 93% of respondents. High-risk demographics include people between 35 and 45 years, Women, and Employees in higher positions. Employees working more than 45 hours per week are also at risk.
Interestingly, 90% of the employees stated that job or work-life balance is the top contributor impacting mental health. 42% strongly agreed that they are stressed because of their job and nearly 45% mentioned that work pressure impacted their family life. About 80% agreed that they have taken 2 weeks’ leave from work in the last year because of stress/ anxiety/ poor mental health and about 90% reported that they are expected to work every time they are on leave. These details are alarming.
Another report, “Insights from India’s Best Workplaces in Health and Wellness 2023”, has insights representing more than 18.5 lakh employees from 210+ organizations. A key finding from the report states that one out of every four Indian employees struggle to speak up about stress, burnout, anxiety, or depression without feeling judged. These reports suggest that the situation isn’t just affecting the Indian workplace, but has global prevalence. The theme for World Mental Health Day 2024 is ‘It is Time to Prioritize Mental Health in the Workplace’. We at Connecting Trust are organizing the World Mental Health Day Walkathon 2024 to highlight this issue and awareness. We invite every Punekar from every walk of life to join us to improve knowledge, raise awareness, and drive actions that promote mental health, especially in all professional settings.
Timings: Sunday, 13th October 2024, 4 PM – 6 PM
The walkathon will start from Sambhaji Park and it will routed to J.M. Road, Good Luck Chowk, FC College, and return to the starting point. Flag-off at the hands of Arnavaz Damania, Founder and Managing Trustee, Connecting Trust, Sandy Dias, Co-Managing Trustee, Connecting Trust, Pranita Madkaikar, CEO, Connecting Trust.
The NGO is dedicated to Suicide Prevention and de-stigmatizing Suicide, our team of trained volunteers and staff have been supporting thousands of persons in emotional distress for the past 19 years through our various programs that include a free Helpline, Email support, Suicide Survivor Support, and the PEER education program for High School & College students.
