Health Management Insight: Psychiatric cases
'Psychiatric': relating to mental illness and its treatment.
A 'psychiatric disorder' is a mental illness that can greatly disturb a person's thinking, moods and/or behaviour - but there is a very wide spectrum of severity of mental ill health.
Depression and anxiety disorders are the most-common mental illnesses - and can present with symptoms such as low mood, impaired concentration and sleep or feelings of panic.
Mental ill-health is very common in the workplace and contributes significantly not only to days lost through absence, but also to the financial cost of presenteeism to a business.
It has been estimated that addressing wellbeing at work increases productivity by as much as 12%.
Mental illnesses are more likely to develop during times of stress or uncertainty, which can be related to work or non-work related issues.