Mental Health and Compliance Officers

Compliance into the Weeds

The award winning, Compliance into the Weeds is the only weekly podcast which takes a deep dive into a compliance related topic, literally going into the weeds to more fully explore a subject. In this episode, we consider the very prescient topic of mental health and compliance officers. There is a mental health crisis in the U.S. workforce today, and that applies to compliance officers as well. Matt recently moderated a webinar, hosted by Ethico, on how mental health issues can affect corporate culture and compliance officers themselves. The panelists included Paul Liebman, head of compliance at Harvard University; and Sarah Ross, a former compliance officer at Novartis who now runs a consulting business on burnout, depression, and related issues; and Nick Gallo, co-CEO at Ethico.

Some of the highlights included:

• How the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the issues of mental health for all workers.
• We had some great suggestions from the panelists and webinar participants.
• Understanding the difference between mental health and mental illness, is critical.
• Consider how your company could weave mental health awareness into training, and especially manager training.
• Define boundaries between work and personal life.
• Why find yourself a friend in your field can be a critical mental health safety check. If you feel like you have someone to speak to about stress, you’re more likely to understand and confront that stress. True for compliance officers and other employees alike.
• There is a strong connection between mental health and a speakup culture generally. If employees feel afraid to speak up about feeling stressed or overworked, would they be equally reluctant to speak up about misconduct.

Resources

Matt Kelly in Radical Compliance

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