Debt and mental health: 'Recession depression' on the rise

02/02/2010

More people are taking time off work due to stress and worry about their jobs, a new survey from Aviva has found.

The results found that both business owners and employees are losing sleep and getting stressed over their financial wellbeing, a phenomenon nicknamed "recession depression".

Dr Doug Wright, principal consultant at Aviva UK Health commented: "Stress is extremely hard to tackle as people often mask the symptoms until its too late.

"Individuals can be affected by all manner of problems from personal factors to pressure of work and external issues including economic woes."

Of those questioned, almost one in four businesses (23 per cent) claimed that recent economic difficulty had taken "a lasting toll on employee stress levels and led to an inevitable rise in long term absence rates".

But the survey did find that employers were getting better at tackling the issue with 40 per cent claiming that low absence rates were due to the company's efforts to manage employee stress.

Kevin Still, director of EuroDebt, commented: "Debt and mental health problems are directly linked according to the experts and there is no doubt that debt problems at home together with the threat of loss of income are likely to create financial stress.

"Getting professional debt advice is important, as there are now robust guidance notes with regard to how creditors and debt collectors should treat people with debts with mental health conditions."

Posted by Jim Mead

Tags; Job loss,

• Share
• 
• 
• Store
• 
• Follow
•