FOSTERING GOOD MENTAL HEALTH
care. “Part of the challenge is that the healthcare system has never been equi- table in terms of providing services for, or paying claims of, mental or behav- ioral healthcare,” says Dyme. “Certainly not in the same way as they have the physical or medical side of things.” While signing up for an appropriate
plan is important, the fact remains that ensuring adequate care can still be elusive. “You may have robust mental health coverage, but if you don’t have enough therapists and psychiatrists in the health network it amounts to a plan without a promise of care,” says Gruttadaro. “Furthermore, many psy- chiatrists and therapists do not accept insurance because they have experienced administrative burdens and low reimbursement rates in health plan networks.” Another problem is a lack of suffi-
cient personnel. “Even if patients are lucky enough to find a practitioner in their network who takes new patients, they often must wait three to six months for an appointment,” says Gruttadaro. Blue Cross Blue Shield has estimated that 77 percent of U.S. counties are underserved by therapists. Scarce resources are an especially common problem in rural communities.
Here’s where technology has come
to the rescue, at least to some extent. The work-from-home trend sparked by the pandemic has opened the door to telemedicine, expanding the pool of potential medical personnel to include practitioners far from a patient’s place of residence. “Being able to connect to a psychiatrist or therapist through a computer has been a real plus,” says Gruttadaro. Remote treatment can also help
resolve the special challenges experi- enced by the growing number of remote workers. There is evidence that isolation from colleagues can lead to mental health issues. “We typically get in the 16,000 range in terms of requests for our employer guides,” says Gruttadaro of the Center for Workplace Mental Health. “But our title about working remotely on mental health has received more than 300,000.”
Taking Action Traditionally, businesses have put the burden on individual employees to deal with the burnout and stress that can lead to mental health issues. “Employers have always expected people to show up at the workplace and leave their problems at the door,”
Working With EAPs
Good physical and mental health go hand in hand. And treating them in tandem can go a long way toward ensuring productive employees. “When physical and mental health care are not inte- grated, diagnoses are often missed and conditions go untreated,” says Lynn Merritt, senior vice president for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. The result can be illnesses that impact employee performance and the business’ bottom line. Too often, though, the mental health side of the partnership
ends up getting neglected. The problem is largely one of tradi- tion, as many insurance policies address only physical illness. Businesses can solve the issue in two ways. The first is by selecting carriers that treat mental health conditions. The second is by signing up with an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) which provides round-the-clock counseling through in-person consultations as well as remote access channels such as text, chat, video conference, or telephone.
32 Self-Storage NOW! “Sometimes all people need to do is talk with somebody at
the beginning of the issues they’re struggling with, so their con- ditions don’t get worse,” says Bernie Dyme, president of Perspectives Ltd, an EAP consulting firm. “EAPs can give employees the help they need, and that can mean they will stick around, which helps retention.” While EAPS are often baked into disability carrier insurance,
not all such organizations are alike. Psychologists advise shop- ping around for one that is committed to quality consultations. “The very structure of most EAPs is based upon a pricing model where the contractor makes more when fewer people use it,” sayd Patrick J. Kennedy, co-founder and director of One Mind At Work, a global coalition of organizations committed to the development of a standard for workplace mental health. “Employers need to obtain EAPs that are not disincentivized to get more people to know about them and make use of them.”
FIRST QUARTER 2023
says Hotchner. “Today we know a lot more about human behavior, and we know that’s often not possible. People will put on a social face and avoid asking for any accommodations that might jeopardize their jobs. But because they have a hidden disability they are not able to give 100 percent.” Times are changing, and today’s
workers expect their employers to join in the mental health effort by providing a supportive workplace. That means taking steps such as adjusting work- loads, encouraging autonomy, ensur- ing fairness, and enhancing self-worth through reward and recognition. “We encourage organizations to
look critically internally, and make the required changes to ensure that people are not getting burned out, because that’s the fastest move toward the exit when it comes to people’s work experiences,” says Gruttadaro. “It is really important that we build cul- tures in which people want to be part of the organization when they go to work in the morning, whether they’re walking through an office door or firing up their home computer.”
New York-based freelancer Phillip M. Perry nego- tiates win-win deals with his clients everywhere.
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