A new Movement to support mental Health in the Workplace More than 100 leaders from America, Asia, Australia and Europe were gathered in Geneva this Week to attend the first global World Strategic Partners meeting. These leaders represent a broad level of competence including multinational employers, governments and international agencies. The conclusion of the meeting is that there is a need for an international movement, and that this meeting should serve as a platform for dialog for this movement (Geneva October 10, 2000).

Among the Employers represented were Motorola, Nokia, Siemens, American Airlines, Canadian Airlines, General Electric and Wal-mart. Majella Uzan, the president of World Strategic Partners emphasize. "There is a stigma around mental health in the workplace and few data are available. The date available, however, are surprising and convincing. Depressive disorders represent one of the most common health problems of adults in United states workforce. National spending on depression alone is USS 30-40 billion, with an estimated 200 million days lost from work each year. Programs to increase the wellbeing of the workforce have proven significant results in terms of higher productivity. One example indicates that for every dollar invested in the wellbeing of the individual, you have a potential of getting 10 dollars back on bottom line" The most common way to improve the wellbeing in the workforce is to implement an employee assist program (EAP). These programs have proven to be an efficient way to reduce stress and depression at work. The problem of depression is however not only related to work, but also to the total life of a person. One of the keynote speakers, Mathew Fox proposed that the definition of work should be changed and that there should be more room for meditation and spirituality at work. The need for more spiritualism at work was supported by many of the delegates, leading into the way work is designed in general. It is a proposition from the meeting that more spirituality at work leads to less depression and to higher overall productivity. One of the key purposes of the meeting was to start the development of a "toolbox" to support organizations and government in their effort to increase the productivity and mental energy at workplace. This toolbox is composed of recommendations from the experts when it comes to political arrangements, management arrangements, work design, Outcome measurements, incentive systems and benchmark data/best practice. The toolbox will be published on internet together with a white paper from the conference. The toolbox will be developed on an ongoing basis and will together with the annual meeting serve as a platform for dialogue and ongoing improvements. Einar Stokke, the CEO of World Strategic Partners concludes: "The meeting in Geneva was needed in order to gather the different players for dialogue. The next conference will take place in 12-18 month and will deal with some of the recommendations from the Geneva meeting including spiritualism and business, mental energy at work. The next conference will focus on practical and action oriented and focus on tools used by best practice organizations. We will limit the number of delegates to around 180 leaders. The limited number is necessary in order to create the forum for dialogue we want".