In this thought leadership piece, we explore how mental health affects daily driving, particularly at work.

People drive how they live. As individuals, in families, communities and, most importantly, the way we work in organisations.

Research around the link between mental health and driving shows that life and job satisfaction is an accurate indicator of driving and work performance, says respected road safety researcher Dr. Robert B. Isler, who has been researching road safety since the 1980s.

And a person’s mental wellbeing has a direct impact on the ability to identify and react to hazards as well as on risk-taking behaviour.

So the message for individuals from this thought leadership piece is “are you ok…to drive”?

And for workplaces and business owners, what steps are you taking to ensure the mental wellbeing of your people? Because mental health is a major influence on how people drive, which impacts on driver safety, crash rates, severity of injury, and frequency of near misses and traffic infringements. This also has flow-on costs, including financial, emotional and otherwise, for businesses and the wider community.

 Remember Driving is a surrogate measure of job performance and job satisfaction. For many people it is how you start and finish the day as well.