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Spain is taking a significant step toward addressing mental health challenges in the workplace with the launch of a comprehensive initiative by the Ministry of Health.

Spearheaded by Belén González, the program aims to incorporate work-related mental health into the country's national epidemiological surveillance system.

In an interview with Euractiv's partner EFE, González emphasized the pressing need to address the growing prevalence of psychological distress among workers. "Work is breaking workers," she stated, stressing the urgency of tackling this issue.

The initiative seeks to assess the extent of psychological suffering linked to work and officially recognize mental disorders stemming from workplace factors.

Despite the global impact of stress at work, commonly referred to as burnout, Spain has not yet formally acknowledged it as a mental disorder.

Global data from the World Health Organization (WHO) reveals the staggering toll of depression and anxiety on productivity, with an estimated 12 billion work days lost annually worldwide.

"Work amplifies wider societal issues that negatively affect mental health, including discrimination and inequality. Bullying and psychological violence (also known as 'mobbing') is a key complaint of workplace harassment that has a negative impact on mental health," WHO stated.

Moreover, a 2016 report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) showed the pervasive nature of work-related stress within the European Union, affecting over 40 million individuals and imposing significant economic costs.

The proposed registry will be integrated into Spain's future epidemiological surveillance system, providing valuable insights into the impact of working conditions on mental health.

In advocating for systemic change, González noted the need to prioritize workers' health over productivity and profits.

"We are going to start to put pressure (on the authorities) so that there is a change within jobs so that working conditions change because it is not that we send fragile people to the jobs and then they break, what is happening is that the jobs are breaking the workers," González said, per Euractiv.

This sentiment was echoed by Spain's health minister, Mónica Garcia, who acknowledged the broader social origins of the mental health epidemic.

"We know that there is an epidemic of psychological distress, but we also know that this epidemic has its origin in social problems that go beyond the four walls of this Ministry," Garcia said.