Present Situation on the Problems of Mental Health in Occupational Field and the Prospects of Social Supports in the Working Place

In today\u27s Japan, it comes to matter that the problems of mental health and the number of suicides tend to be increasing. These are the key issues not only to employees but also to corporate organizations. Stress, the main factor causing them, comes from human relationship in the working place. This, called social support, is pointed out as buffering effects for stress reactions. House(1981) explained social support by using four functions : emotional support, instrumental support, informational support, and appraisal support. If social support in the working place is defined as positive communication with these functions, we can get many suggestions from leadership study and mentoring study. However, Japanese governmental efforts to mental health reflect only emotional support. The studies to explicitly show the effects of each function in social support are required in future