Personalized, accessible support

Organizations differ widely in the products and services they offer, but they all have one common denominator for success: Great people.

So it’s no surprise that the health of these people is a powerful influence on the success of a business — and employers need to invest in keeping employees in top form. And while the physical health needs of employees have long been a focus of group benefit plans, it’s only recently that mental health needs are being addressed in a concerted fashion.

And it can’t come soon enough — 21 per cent of Canadian employees are experiencing mental health problems and illnesses, and mental health issues account for about 30 per cent of short- and long-term disability claims, according to a 2016 report from the Mental Health Commission of Canada.

Many employers are taking steps to address the issue as part of a broader mental health strategy. These include peer-to-peer support programs, manager training to better identify and support those with mental health issues, increased promotion of employee assistance programs (EAPs), and increased maximums under group benefits plans for counselling services.

These are all excellent and much-needed supports in the workplace. But many organizations are still seeing and addressing mental health as a vertical issue — with mental health placed in a silo and dealt with reactively.

A broader horizontal approach to mental health can help prevent some of those issues from occurring in the first place. And a more personalized approach to both support and treatment can yield significant benefits for both employers and employees.

Breaking down the silos

Mental health does not exist in a vacuum. Research has shown that poor mental health can have significant negative impacts on physical heath, and vice versa. If physical health is improved, mental health improvements often follow. That’s why support for positive behaviour change is so important.

For example, even short periods of exercise have been shown to enhance mood by reducing anxiety and depression, and increasing feelings of vigour. And there are many studies that find a link between healthy diets and healthy minds, with diets of healthy foods associated with a lower risk of anxiety and depression.

So, in addition to wellness programs that target mental health specifically — such as mindfulness training — employer-sponsored programs that incorporate diet and exercise can also improve the overall state of mental health at work.

These can be expanded further to financial health. For those people who experienced a mental health event, 28 per cent said it had caused them to reduce or deplete their savings, and 25 per cent said it had caused some other form of financial hardship, according to Sun Life Financial’s 2016 Canadian Health Index.

As an employer, incorporating programs that encourage greater financial health — from budgeting workshops to the promotion or expansion of savings programs, to retirement planning seminars — can also improve the mental health of a workforce.

In addition to these prevention steps, when a mental or physical illness occurs, it’s important to recognize that comorbidity — the coexistence of two or more health conditions — is common and can negatively increase the impacts on employees and employers. Workers with comorbid mental and physical health conditions have been found to have two to five times the likelihood of functional disability and absence from work, according to the 2007 study Diabetes, Common Mental Disorders, and Disability: Findings from the UK National Psychiatric Morbidity Survey.

When reacting to and treating an employee with mental illness, employer health supports may miss the fact an employee is suffering from other chronic physical health conditions too (such as diabetes, heart disease or arthritis). A siloed approach to mental health may result in missing this bigger comorbidity picture.

Personalized approach

Another key differentiator for positive mental health outcomes is taking a more personalized and accessible approach to support and treatment. Here are five strategies that can help:

Mental health well-being assessments: A simple, short mental performance survey, followed by a personal consultation with a psychologist or psychotherapist, can be carried out across the employee base and identify barriers to optimum mental health, such as sleep quality, alcohol consumption, and stress management. The therapist can then provide an action plan for tackling these barriers — and help employees become their focused and productive best before mental health issues escalate.

Psychological counselling by video: For many, access issues to much-needed mental health therapies remain. These issues include a reluctance to seek help due to a perceived stigma associated with therapy, the time needed to travel to and from counselling sessions, and a fear of meeting people the employee may know in a waiting area. Technology can be a great enabler — and some employees may respond better to digital-based care over in-person methods. Digital therapy can allow for more continuous, ongoing treatment, and may be more effective at certain stages of care. It can also be more scalable and cost-effective than in-person treatments.

Complex case management: For many people, knowing how to navigate the health-care system can be a source of stress in itself. By providing case management support to employees suffering from complex mental health issues — or a combination of mental and physical health issues — an employer can provide peace of mind for employees, reduce delays in getting proper treatment, ensure better health outcomes and get employees back to health and back to work faster.

Pharmacogenomic testing: A simple genetic test can help doctors better understand how a specific patient responds to a given medication — and lets them prescribe medications more precisely based on an individual’s genes. It can be used to guide treatment decisions across a range of health conditions, including mental health issues. As an employer, this type of testing can help ensure an employee gets the most effective treatment the first time, rather than experiencing delays — and more time off work — through a trial-and-error process.

Ongoing, one-on-one health coaching: Making smart health choices is not a “one and done” event. Ongoing coaching and support can be critical to helping employees build better habits and transform their overall health. A combination of live coaching with digital support can help engrain smarter health choices that drive engagement and productivity, and lower claims costs over time.

There’s a greater willingness than ever to acknowledge the importance of mental health support and treatment in the workplace, and a greater understanding of the degree to which mental health is integrated across every area of the health spectrum. Innovations are making it easier to prevent mental health issues and help employees conveniently receive treatment when needed. The need is there and this is an excellent time to take action on the prevention, support and treatment of mental health issues in the workplace.