Your poor coworker. I hope he hasn't lost everything, as so many have.

Weather fatigue is real - at least for those of us used to living in a mild climate. I feel depressed and frustrated, being forced everyday to look at the damage these storms have caused yet knowing realistically nothing can be done until things dry out. Ugh.

Living in a rough climate isn't easy. We never know when is the next ice or snow storm or flood going to hit. Just last month we had people without power over a week in the middle of winter and many couldn't even get into their yards or garages because of fallen power lines. Cant get your car either. 

poor people who get displaced/had to evacuate. It's too hard!

I do feel that mental health at workplace is being addressed. Many insurances cover mental health concerns and if not then most bigger employers offer mental health assistance. Many employers offer workshops and PDs on mental health. And people can read. Info is everywhere 

Yes many people refuse to seek therapy or even acknowledge importance of mental health. I don't think it's due to society not addressing it. In my experience it has been sufficiently addressed for many decades.
 

Some people still live in the past, so to speak, when therapy was shameful or not spoken about. Or some believe they just don't need it. Much of it just comes from upbringing.
 

Education is the key. More educated people become more likely they to seek and accept help. By education I don't just mean get degrees, but developing overall well rounded worldly views on life. 

I live in St. Louis, in the Mississippi Valley.  I was working during our disastrous floods in the 90's.  Unbelievable scenes.  I didn't have family flooded out but some of the co-workers and some of their families were.  Clothing drives. Food drives.  Tragic stories.

A nearby riverside community with a long flood history built a big levee which has been effective.  Result:  a downriver community now floods more often.  Sigh...

Several of you mentioned that some old crusty people refuse therapy. Where you live you may have access to mental health. I do not. I am old and crusty, and I would have loved to have had someone to talk to when,  A. A flood took 2/3 of our property in 2020 B. my dear father died in 2021 and C. my adult SD, well, is a SD and you all can relate. So please don't lump us all into one category. The largest town over has grief therapy, but only for children, I tried the local church that has therapy but it was only for Catholics. I tried local therapists, but there are only three and they had a waiting list. I found some online resources, but there you go. I hope you can reach out to your coworker and give him some peace.

Since my job (insurance) and home are in the shore towns of Jersey, we are highly stressed especially thru hurricane season.  

If we get a bad storm, we work 24 hours a day, sleeping in shifts since we need to help our clients thru it.  It's hard when the older folks who were on the islands and have homes that have passed down from generation lose everything all the while trying to relocate ourselves and our families. I have seen more than a few break and it is not pretty.

Our company provides the wellness programs and have counselers come in during those times to help us work thru the issues.  Sometimes it helps and sometimes we just don't have the time to take to sit down with them and talk it out.  But we need to take our mental health in our own hands.  Having family, friends and co-workers support is utmost as well.

Some like your co-worker just don't realize how much stress they are under until they break.  We all think we can handle it, but ignore the warning signs.

I hope your co-worker finds peace and is back in his home as soon as possible. 

There's a lot of research done on impact of various events on people's mental health and overall state of their emotions. Natural disasters along with house fires and floods are actually considered similar to wars in regards to impact on humans' psyche. Even though talking about Ukraine and guns seems to be hysterical exaggeration, this guy might not be that far off comparing the impact of these events on people's well being. Actually house fire has been always compared to surviving war conflicts by the intensity of long term emotional damage 

I saw that story about the town on the news. I'm so sorry. We just had that huge snowstorm (and thankfully entire towns were not destroyed) at Christmas and I feel so bad for you guys out there. I'm glad you're safe Clove. These extreme weather events are wreaking havoc in this country. 
 

As for mental health in the workplace, I feel like everything just moves way too fast these days. With phones, email etc we are always connected to our job and can't ever slow down. Everything has to be done like yesterday and it's exhausting.

I'm just returning to work from materntiy leave. DH has not been working for months and finally got a temp job that is 2 hours away from our home, so I'm essentially solo parenting an infant and a toddler during the week. And I'm trying to manage some health-related issues for my infant that will require multiple appointments over the next few weeks. All that is to say, my mental health struggle is real right now. One of the few benefits to my job is that it is flexible and I fly under the radar a bit, so I'm trying to take advantage of that and ease myself back into a full time schedule.

I'm also in charge of HR in my current role and we've had several people take mental health leave...one person for nearly two years. It's good to work at a place that allows us that flexibility and allows us to be our authentic selves who sometimes need to dial back a bit, but it still feels precarious...and on a personal level, it feels weird to share so much about myself with coworkers...that is now how I was raised.  

and emotional illness these days is still a hard thing for me to work around.  I never remember this being a thing even 10 years ago.

My former #2 shared fairly frequently and broadly that he was "on the spectrum" , meducated for addiction, and medicated for emotional health issues.  I firmly believe he was bi-polar. Technical skill wise, he was outstanding. However, he was poison to relationships and to the cultural dynamics in my business.  If he had not transferred, it would have cost him his job. I had initiated terminal disciplinary action when my then boss interceded and transferred him.

My new #2 is technically more broadly knowledgeable and capable though only incrementally better technically. His soft skills are orders of magnitude better.  All was going great for the first 10wks after he joined my team as my #2. Then we had a couple of very stressful weeks and his medicated anxiety conditon raised it's head.  Before coming to work for me, he worked for my bosses boss. So, when his anxiety overwhelmed him, he called my bosses boss had a manic vent episode and the next chapter of Rags' medicated mentally/emotionally ill #2s drama began.  My two up boss called my boss, groused at him about talking to his people. My boss backed him off by telling him that my #2 is not my bosses employee nor is he my boss's boss's employee.

My boss was in house last week for a day. I had to book some 1:1 time with him to read him into the anxiety condition of my new #2.  I did not violate any confidences by reading my boss in.  My new #2 has repeatedly brought up his condition publically several times since joining my team. My boss did confirm that he suspected though did not know. Now he knows. Apparently by boss reached out to my #2 and coached him to go to me, then to my boss, before going above that level.  Open door policy aside, if we do not know we can't fix a problem. Not communicating is not accepable.

Companies are so terrified of law suits that being able to directly address issues with people identifying as mentally or behaviorally special needs makes being a manager just that much more difficult.  To keep an employer in line when I have been approached to accomodate over stepping behavior by a mentally/emotionally/behaviorally ill employee I have pointed out that failing to deal with these situation creates a hostile work environment and is more of a risk at a broader level than if a "syndrome" afflicted employee takes legal action for disciplinary action.  I have also pointed out that a number of my employees are multiple protected class individuals... including me.

It is interesting how that backs the company off and gets them focused on resolution to the problem rather than accomodating toxic.

I have advised on a number of opportunities to improve the support the revenue generating organziations get from the central support orgs. Not much action yet. But I am hopeful.

I will not accept not managing my business and having to default to HR, Safety, Finance... etc... in decisioning. I engage them, discuss with them, take their expert advice, then I manage my business making the decisions for my business.

So far, it has worked out and the Sr. leaders seem to be appreciated. 

Knock on wood that continues.