
Mental Health in the Workplace
We spend most of our lives either at work, getting to and from work, or
worrying about work at home. So, the workplace is probably the first and
most important place we should be talking about mental health. Unfortunately,
it is typically the last place we actually talk about it. This has to change.
Healthy employees are more productive and more focused on the job. They
also take fewer sick days and consume fewer health care dollars. This
is an important consideration since it’s estimated that mental health
and substance abuse problems cost American businesses over $200 billion
a year. Even more alarming, only 20% of that staggering sum is due to
absenteeism. The rest is due to what labor experts call “presenteeism”
or working while sick. In other words, being present at work, but being
unproductive due to illness, lack of motivation, or burnout.
Over the last five years, I’ve witnessed growing awareness of the
importance of mental health in the workplace. In Orange County, many mental
health risk factors compare favorably to state and national averages.
That said, we still have ample opportunity for improvement.
While mental health problems can be harder to detect, diagnose and treat
than physical ailments, there are plenty of resources available to help
employers tackle the challenge.
We can start by looking at the “triggers” that cause mental
stress in the workplace:
- Working excessively long hours without breaks
- Unrealistic deadlines and un-manageable workloads
- Unreasonable or hostile supervisors and co-workers
- Environmental stressors, such as poor lighting, uncomfortable temperatures,
and loud noises
Of course, there are laws and regulations designed to prevent workplace
duress. But many employees are unaware—or they simply don’t
want to appear incompetent or weak, so they just get on with it. On the
employer side, these triggers are often not well understood—or not
proactively managed.
What Can Employers Do Better?
Communication is vitally important and surprisingly powerful. I recently came across a story that perfectly illustrates my point. A
young, female software developer had emailed her team, notifying them
that she was taking a couple of days off for mental health reasons. The
company’s CEO found out about it and emailed her a ‘thank
you’ for speaking candidly about her reason for taking sick time.
The young woman was so surprised and impressed that she posted the entire
exchange on Facebook, where it quickly went viral. Imagine if every employer
in America treated mental health the same way. Imagine the loyalty and
motivation that would engender in
your workforce—by simply creating a safe space to talk openly and honestly
about mental health.
HR policies, programs, and procedures should explicitly support mental
health care. There’s an easy litmus test for this; it should be just as easy
for an employee to request
and be paid for time off for a visit to their therapist as for a visit to their primary
care doctor. Especially since very few therapists have evening or weekend
hours—leaving employees no option but to go during the normal work day.
There is a systemic flaw in the way most employers fund their mental health
benefits. For example, most companies contract with an entity to provide
mental health services for employees. But those entities—those networks—are
usually different than the providers in the Employee Assistance Program
(EAP). Most EAP programs only cover short duration events—sudden
but brief crises in the employee’s personal life. But if the employee
needs ongoing help—beyond the immediate crisis—they will usually
be transitioned to the regular mental health benefit—with a different
set of therapists. So, there is absolutely no continuity of care.
Plus, there’s another problem. When employees attempt to use their
mental health benefit, they are often just given a list of therapists’
phone numbers and very little else. It’s up to them to conduct research
and try to determine which provider would be the best fit. If it’s
the first time someone has sought counseling, this can be a confusing
and even harrowing experience. Fortunately, there’s an easy fix.
When companies contract for mental health services, all they need to do
is ensuring that there are navigators readily available to walk the employees
through the process because it’s not as simple as finding a primary
care doctor or a local urgent care.
Lastly, and most importantly, if you get through all the hurdles, most
of the time the initial appointment could be weeks out. By the way, there’s
no urgent care in the phone book for mental health.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. There is a growing body of evidence-based practices that are very successful
when applied as early intervention strategies. The California Mental Health
Services Agency (CalMHSA) has developed curriculum to help employers raise
awareness of mental health in the workplace. In Orange County, the local
chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is a wonderful resource.
I talk to many employer groups about improving mental health care for their
employees—and my message is really quite simple. To maximize employee
productivity, retention, and happiness, pay attention to your employees’
total well-being—including physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual
health. Proactively create a workplace environment that is supportive,
healthy, and non-prejudiced towards individuals that have mental illness,
or might be at risk of having mental health problems. The reward will
far outweigh the effort.
For more information on St. Joseph Hoag Health’s mental health network
and how employees can schedule a mental health benefit check-up, call
949-381-4777 or email foremployers@stjoe.org.