Childless and World Mental Health Day
World Mental Health Day falls on 10th October and the theme for 2024 is workplace.
The World Mental Health Foundation explain that “Work can have a huge impact on our mental health. It can be good for our mental health, giving us a sense of purpose, boosting our self-worth, and providing opportunities to connect with others. But it can also be a source of stress and anxiety and contribute to developing or worsening mental health problems.”
Childlessness can be linked to almost every awareness day and World Mental Health Day is no exception. And work place … oh yes. We’ve been there ourselves often. Ignored and demoted, or overlooked during school holidays or festive periods, so it goes on. All of which leads to poor mental health and shutting down conversations that need to be heard. That’s 20% of women and estimated 25% of men whose talents are being overlooked.
Academic research evidences the impact of involuntarily childlessness on psychological wellbeing, the European Sociological Review, Feb 2013 published a report 'Childlessness and Psychological Well-Being in Context: A Multilevel Study on 24 European Countries’ that ‘being childless is associated with worse psychological well-being for men,’ and ‘the results indicated that both the strength and the sign of the relationship between childlessness and psychological well-being vary between European societies.’
Keele University discovered that 38% of men in a study group had experienced depression due to not having children, compared to 27% of the women.
We childless may not require research to tell us this, after all we’re experiencing poor mental health in workplaces across the world. It is further evidence to those who may not be aware, highlighting that there is an imbalance in the workplace between childless (who cannot have children) and those who are parents or choose not to be.
It maybe assumed that childless and childfree will have a more carefree life or get promotion as there isn’t parental leave but that’s not true in practice. What is overlooked is how children provide a safe conversation so those who have then bond. What of those who aren’t and endure pronatal conversation, baby showers, collections and covering for leave? Dr Holly Andrews writes in Personnel Today about being taken for granted, drawing attention to exclusions that flip the script:
A study conducted by ResumeLab about the treatment of parents and non-parents in the workplace revealed that 74% of respondents think those with children are treated better in the workplace than those without. And 87% believed that working parents had more benefits than employees without children.
If you haven’t thought about childlesss people in your workplace on World Mental Health Day and checked your content is inclusive, because we all have mental health, then that’s an exclusion. How do you make sure that everyone’s mental health is recognised and supported?
Designing and creating policies that include different concepts of ‘family’ that aren’t parents and child/ren starts to remove inherited social biases and share them so staff can locate them.
Include childlessness and childfree (by choice) in awareness days.
Caring and parenting can often be seen as the same, yet childless women are more likely to care for ageing relatives, if they’re childless not by choice, placing care with parents is not protecting their wellbeing.
Baby showers and baby related events can be upsetting, look at ways of providing choice and space.
Honour events that recognise childlessness to bring about awareness to others, it will be painful for individuals to speak about.
Making sure flexible working is for all. Sophie Hunter from Episode 59 has more information on policies and inclusion.
Include childlessness and loss in your Mental Health First Aid Training.
Arranging cover that includes the family and caring commitments of childless people.
Learn about inclusive policies with MIST on our podcast and book Katy for a workshop so you can learn more about inclusive spaces.
