BY TYLER FARDELL
New funding has been announced for the Hunter Institute of Mental Health to work closely with small businesses in NSW to co-design a new approach that better supports the mental health and well-being of owners and workers.
Around $1.1 million dollars is being awarded to the Institute from the icare foundation, as they look to develop and trial the new approach to mental health in small businesses.
Currently, there are no specific mental health management solutions tailored to NSW small businesses.
The new approach will see the Institue partnering with researchers from the University of Newcastle and exploring technology and e-health solutions which may be effective in a small business environment.
The program will try to tackle the gap in mental health support for small business owners and their staff compared to big businesses, despite small businesses making up 98% of all businesses in NSW.
Many large companies have access to employee assistance programs and other mental health and wellbeing programs, while small businesses don't have that luxury.
Dr Ross Tynan who is the Research lead at the Hunter Institute of Mental Health is encouraging residents involved in a small business to take part in a survey.
"We understand there are a lot of unique stresses associated with small business and were taking that into consideration", he said.
"So that's why were interested in finding out some information from more people who work in small business".
The survey is available at http://bit.ly/MentalHealthSmallBizSurvey
