The Department of Social Services in Sharjah organized a symposium in celebration of World Mental Health Day, under the slogan "Mental Health in the Workplace", at the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship and Ports Security Theater in Sharjah, with the participation of a group of specialized and interested academics. Dr. Alia Al Shehhi participated with a paper entitled “The Importance of Effective Communication and Social Interaction in Promoting Mental Health and Building a Positive Work Environment,” discussing the factors affecting employees’ mental health in the work environment, which hinder them from communicating effectively, including: excessive workloads, overlapping or unclear job tasks, tight deadlines that negatively affect employees’ mental health and make them feel stressed and depressed, uncomfortable workplace designs in terms of lighting, ventilation, and noise sources, in addition to tense relationships between employees, or between employees and management. Dr. Al Shehhi pointed out the negative impact of the employee’s feeling of fear due to job loss and job insecurity, as well as salaries and wages that are not commensurate with job roles. Challenges Regarding the challenges that may face the implementation of mental health support programs for employees in the work environment, Al Shehhi explained that they are represented by budget constraints and the material cost required to implement these programs, and many companies adopting a corporate culture that focuses primarily on productivity without paying attention to the psychology and well-being of employees, and the difficulty of measuring and evaluating the extent to which mental health support programs for employees affect their performance, behavior, and job satisfaction rates. Al Shehhi stated that effective communication between employees is beneficial in cases of conflict, as it ensures that the conflict is resolved in a respectful and understanding manner. When communication is effective, people can build healthy relationships based on clarity and mutual trust. Effective communication also plays a prominent role in teamwork and spreading trust between the parties involved in this work. It helps bring viewpoints closer together, thus facilitating the making of various decisions and the success of relationships, whether personal or work-related. Productivity: For her part, Dr. Moza Al Mansouri, a professor at the Higher Colleges of Technology, presented a working paper on “The Importance of Mental Health in the Work Environment and Health Care for Employees and Its Impact on Productivity.” She defined health in general as complete safety, physically, mentally and socially, and not merely the absence of disease and disability. As for physical health, it is the body’s freedom from organic diseases related to the human body. Al Mansouri added that mental health is beliefs and ideas. If they are sound, then the person is mentally sound, while social health means the person’s ability to deal with social variables, such as satisfaction with himself and his society. Al Mansouri pointed out that psychological care for employees leads to increased productivity and overall performance of the organization, and stressed the need to deal with the employee as a person who has emotions and goes through circumstances and moods, and that respecting the employee’s entity in guidance leads to doubling the effort and achievement and evaluating his capabilities through continuous development and training. Al Mansouri explained that trust between management and employees leads to flexibility in dealing, acceptance and respect between the two parties. She stressed the need for an occupational psychologist and dealing with employees with the utmost kindness and respect. She noted that the most important point is providing job security to achieve strategic indicators that help employees achieve ambitions, stay away from threats and provide officials with skills in directing employee behavior to complete work and its productivity. Al Mansouri pointed out that a report on global mental health, in cooperation with the International Labor Organization, issued in 2022, stated that 60% of the world’s population are workers and have the right to a safe and healthy work environment. Stress Management Dr. Sheikha Al Shehhi, a family and psychological therapist, presented a paper entitled “How to Deal with and Manage Stress and Psychological Pressure in the Work Environment and Preventive Measures to Avoid or Deal with Them.” She began by pointing out that mental health is a state of psychological well-being that enables a person to face life’s pressures, achieve their potential, learn and work well. It is divided into several types: mental health, which is psychological and social compatibility, the ability to be productive, happy and giving. Dr. Sheikha Al Shehhi added that sound mental health helps the individual control his feelings and emotions and desires, and thus social behavior is directed in a sound and healthy way so that people who enjoy mental health deal positively with problems and difficulties in life, and makes them more capable of bearing responsibility and not evading it. It creates stable and normal individuals and makes the individual’s life free from tension, turmoil and continuous conflicts, which makes him feel happy with himself. The lecturer defined self-compatibility as a state of psychological stability in which the individual is compatible with himself and adapts to his level, potential, abilities and self-competencies. She noted that the factors affecting the individual are personal traits that play an important role in mental health and in the work environment. She continued that some workers may suffer from an inability to feel psychological comfort and compatibility within the work environment as a result of their being distinguished by some negative personal traits, such as their inability to bear responsibility, or their lack of respect for deadlines or the system followed at work. These factors lead to the failure of workers to progress and succeed, which makes the employee feel failure and inferiority, and thus the deterioration of his mental health. Regarding how to feel job satisfaction, Al Shehhi mentioned several points, the most important of which are satisfying the needs of workers and their satisfaction, and improving the material aspect such as wages, incentives and bonuses, as well as the moral aspect, i.e. the feeling of justice and appreciation. Feeling job satisfaction is a basic and necessary requirement to achieve mental health at work, and not getting one’s rights makes one feel frustrated and aggressive, and causes a state of indifference within the framework of work. All of these are clear characteristics of poor mental health. Inner Peace Finally, Dr. Hussein Masih, Development and Care Expert at the Dubai Community Development Authority, presented a paper entitled “Mental Health and Inner Peace,” explaining the difference between the concepts of inner peace and happiness, as each is different from the other. Happiness is always associated with money, while inner peace means the inner satisfaction that a person is looking for, and mental health is the way to reach it.