3 Steps To Support And Improve Mental Health In The Workplace

The following three steps are important measures your organization can take to elevate mental health programs within your core benefits. These can go a long way toward helping your employees care for both body and mind, as well as control costs by keeping them connected to available resources.

1. Virtual Care Delivers The Right Resources At The Right Time

Virtual care gives employees more flexibility and greater access to receive care when and where it’s most convenient. Using their mobile device or computer, they can directly connect with mental health providers for consultations or counseling. Not only is it easier to find an appointment with a care provider, but appointments can be made during lunch or daily breaks — making it simpler to get the right care at the right time, and reducing time away from work. Virtual care also helps employees seek support in an environment where they feel comfortable and secure.

Mobile apps allowing employees to access mental health resources also make it easier to integrate mental health as a part of their overall well-being. Anthem’s award-winning Sydney^SM Health app leverages innovative technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to serve as a digital front door to the programs, tools, and services available to employees. Sydney allows employees to facilitate virtual care visits and access a wide range of providers, from mental health professionals to primary care doctors, as part of a connected care ecosystem.

Apps like Sydney Health are unique because of their holistic healthcare view, which is critical given that mental health does not exist in a silo. Anthem data shows that one-third of people with a chronic physical condition also have a behavioral health condition. Staying on top of both physical and mental health, while understanding the impacts each may have on the other, opens the door to more powerful support along a person’s well-being journey while allowing them to maintain or even increase work productivity.

2. Highlight Your Employee Assistance Program (EAP) Resources

EAPs provide employees with resources like confidential counseling and referrals to help them navigate life's challenges. For example, Anthem offers an EAP that can help with trauma recovery, stress management, and relationship problems. This program also includes resources to support employees through the daily pressures of work and life, legal or financial concerns, childcare, and parent care.

The power of EAPs is in the range of services they can provide, meeting your employees’ needs no matter what life throws their way. Parents may be dealing with secondary anxiety about a child’s mental health, as 4 in 10 parents say they are extremely worried that their kids may struggle with depression or anxiety at some point. An employee may be struggling with the effects of a divorce or caring for aging parents. Because work and life stressors are directly correlated to a person’s mental health, it’s important to address these concerns before they become larger issues that result in missing work or taking a leave of absence.

Access and awareness about both serious and long-term stressors reinforce the foundation of the mental health support you offer your workforce.

3. Facilitate Mental Health Support Via Behavioral Health Programs

Fear around the stigma of mental health support can discourage employees from discussing their needs. However, it’s important to understand that work and mental health are interconnected and can impact productivity or, if not managed, limit the ability to foster meaningful connections in the workplace. Positive conversations about mental health are vital to helping employees get the support they need.

Ensure your company’s leadership is comfortable having an open dialogue about the importance of mental health. Invite leaders to share how they stay mentally healthy or manage work/life balance. By openly discussing mental health and backing it up with helpful manager resources, like behavioral health webinars and support tools offered by your health plan, you can demonstrate company values and help employees feel supported. Create a culture that acknowledges and addresses mental health, and you will encourage them to seek help while also supporting whole-person health.

Work is often a significant contributor to a person's sense of purpose and well-being. Employers have the power to shape the narrative on mental health at work and impact outcomes, supported by partners like Anthem. In return, employees who feel that their employer cares about their health and well-being can be more productive and agile.

Sydney Health is offered through an arrangement with Carelon Digital Platforms, a separate company offering mobile application services on behalf of your health plan. ©2023

The Virtual Primary Care experience is offered through an arrangement with Hydrogen Health.