Impact, role, and contribution of family in the mental health of industrial workers

The mental health of the worker population has been given special focus in the last few decades, mostly due to workplace stress and its related consequences on productivity and management. The impact of poor mental health of industrial workers on their families remains largely unexplored. Families have been found to get affected due to issues related to work-family and family-work conflict. Balancing between work and family has been found to be the major source of stress in industrial workers leading to a multitude of mental health issues and substance addiction. Families play a significant role in identifying the mental health problems in their working members and also can act as a bridge between the worker and the organization/industry in facilitating mental health care. The family members play key roles in providing significant support and care to persons suffering from serious mental illness/psychological distress. The focus of holistic management of mental health issues in industrial workers should include proper psycho-education of family members and taking into consideration their mental health needs. In this brief communication, we had tried to highlight the key issues pertaining to the impact, role, and contribution of family in the mental health of industrial workers.