Mental Health is a Major Challenge in All Environments

One of the unique features of the university setting is that it often doubles as educational institution and place of employment for students as well as staff. Like workplaces all over North America, providing mental health care is a major challenge. According to statistics from Mental Health America, one in four adults live with mental illness. And yet colleges are just now waking up to the pressing need for services on campus, according to a recent series in USA Today.

There are a number of reasons for the significant increase in the need for mental health services. For one thing, thanks to better treatments and therapies young adults living with mental illness are now able to attend college, something that was unobtainable a generation ago. But old stigmas die hard, and college students can be reluctant to get help if it means that their parents might find out. And for those willing to reach out, there are often too few services and those services are poorly conceived for this complex population. Sadly, many times little or improvement is made until a campus is turned upside down by tragedy.

Another issue is how to fund mental health programs on campuses. Charging students for services can be a deterrent to seeking help when issues are being kept from parents. There are grants in some states, but these may not be enough to increase services to needed levels.

All of this is why I’m working with Mental Health America and the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. Our need for psychologically healthy, safe and fair workplaces can and must extend to higher education.

Andrew Faas is the author of From Bully to Bull’s-Eye: Move Your Organization Out of the Line of Fire

Photo credit: BIGSTOCK

Those Who Rely on Whistleblower Hotlines are Fools

Reports about the effectiveness of harassment hotlines are leaving me cold. In a recent Letter to the Editor of the New York Times, an attorney who formerly worked with the Labor Department’s Whistleblower Advisory Committee stated that hotline reporting went up 8 percent in 2016 and the average length of resolution dropped from 46 to 42 days. While I have the deepest respect for this individual and the work he does, he’s sadly misinformed.

I have also worked with a number of organizations on ethical issues and have done a fair amount of research in the field, which have led to two books on workplace dynamics—the most recent one being From Bully to Bull’s-Eye: Move Your Organization Out of the Line of Fire. My research has shown that most employees do not trust hotlines and other mechanisms to report workplace wrongdoing. There’s a good reason for this. Take the example of Michael J. Lutz who reported an impropriety he spotted in his work as an accounting specialist at the Radian Group. The company scheduled an investigation and concluded that he was wrong and everything was proper. Frustrated, Lutz reached out to the internal compliance hotline—and one of his superiors found out and retaliated and started to force him out of the company. That’s when he contacted the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is supposed to be the whistleblower’s advocate. In spite of having solid evidence of the retaliation, nothing happened.

Ironically, one of his tasks was to make sure that internal accounting controls were in proper compliance to avoid the strict penalties that resulted from the Enron-era legislation. When he was ousted, Radian hired an outside accounting firm to prove that they were in compliance. The firm? KPMG—the Big Four accounting firm whose improprieties I recently wrote about.

Clearly, business leaders aren’t hearing what employees have to tell them on every level. In a study conducted by Mental Health America sponsored by the Faas Foundation, an astounding 69 percent of more than 17,000 people surveyed admitted to speaking poorly about their organization to others. And yet, as in the case of Bill O’Reilly, leaders continue to insist that no one had a problem because there were no complaints to the whistleblower hotline.

Boards of Directors and senior executive often tout their policies, programs and HR departments as proof that they have a value-based, inclusive, safe and fair workplace culture that includes freedom of expression. My research says otherwise. Top management still isn’t listening, making all of their mechanisms for reporting misbehavior nothing more than legal shields. Even more disturbing, my research shows they don’t want to hear what they need to hear.

Illustration credit: Dilbert by Scott Adams

Accountability Counts: Holding Grant Recipients Responsible for How They Use Funds

What do you do when a significant donation to a charitable organization is not being used in accordance with prior agreement? Earlier this year the Faas Foundation was faced with that dilemma, which forced us to make an unprecedented decision. For the first time since the foundation was created in 2005 we lost confidence in a grantee and rescinded our donation of $1 million. This story in the Toronto Star outlines what happened when the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) didn’t implement its initiative to provide Canadian workplaces with training to identify risks of mental illness and support employees living with the diagnosis.  CAMH Loses $1 Million Donation Due to Issues of Accountability  The money was given in good faith to be part of a multi-pronged initiative between the Canadian CAMH and the American organization Mental Health America and the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence to explore ways to better understand and implement psychologically healthy, safe and fair workplaces. Sadly, CAMH’s elitist attitude, failure to implement and lack of transparency made us reconsider this donation. Philanthropist Questioned the Credibility of CAMH Before Rescinding Donation  Since this news has broken, another donor has considered removing his contribution to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) due to a lack of transparency and communication. The one error in this article is the assertion that the funds were to create a psychologically healthy workplace solely at CAMH. They were actually donated to fund research into evidence-based solutions for dealing with mental health issues in the workplace. It’s time for grant recipients to be accountable for the monies they receive.  CAMH Donor Says More Transparency Needed About Money

Photo: Brian B. Bettencourt/The Toronto Star