The events of the past two years have brought to the forefront emotional well-being challenges that employees and employers had been quietly dealing with for years. Many of us were left without the traditional social and emotional safety nets we’d relied upon in the past, all while managing additional life stressors.
As a result of the well-documented “mental health epidemic,” employers can no longer relegate behavioral health to the last two pages of the benefit guide. Employees are increasingly looking for their employer to proactively provide tools and resources to address emotional well-being. Employers that aren’t providing this support find themselves facing employee burnout, turnover, and disengagement.
Does your organization have a roadmap to identify your employees’ needs and provide the resources to meet them where they are?
In this webinar, we’ll provide:
• Assessment tools for gauging employee emotional well-being and needs
• Strategies & resources for supporting employees
• Best Practices for framing the emotional well-being conversation with employees
• Effective communication strategies to maximize employee engagement
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The Emotional Well-Being Toolkit: A Fresh Approach to Address Behavioral Health Needs & Engage Your Employees
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2.
3.
4.
5. Agenda
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EPIC INSURANCE BROKERS & CONSULTANTS
Introductions and context-setting
Assessment tools for gauging employee emotional
wellbeing and needs
Strategies & resources
Resetting engagement strategies for an ongoing
emotional wellbeing conversation
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6. The Current Landscape
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EPIC INSURANCE BROKERS & CONSULTANTS
9 of 10 employees report that workplace
stress affects their mental health
3 of 5 employees are not receiving
adequate support from manager/
supervisors to manage stress
4 of 5 employees feel emotionally
drained and show early signs of
burnout
of employees find it difficult to
concentrate because of their
work environment
(up from 46% in 2018
65%
of employees strongly feel that
employers provides a safe
environment for employees living with
mental illness
Only 5%
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EPIC INSURANCE BROKERS & CONSULTANTS
Taking the Organizational Pulse
1. Conduct an audit every few years
2. Request regular feedback and encourage employee input
Environment
• Safe and supportive
• Trained managers and supervisors
• Mental health Policy
• Workplace design
Behavioral Health Offerings
• Education and promotion
• Early intervention
• Treatment
• Return to work/ transition support
10. Barriers to Emotional Wellbeing
Strategy should address barriers
to care
and support.
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EPIC INSURANCE BROKERS & CONSULTANTS
Personal Barriers
Benefit Barriers
Care Network Barriers
Engagement Barriers
17. Communication Strategy Toolkit
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EPIC INSURANCE BROKERS & CONSULTANTS
Have a Clear Strategy for
What Success
Looks Like
Reset
Start a
New Dialog with Key
Stakeholders & Employees
Reframe
Involve the Audience
You’re Trying to Reach!
Research
18. 79%
6.9%
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
EAP offered EAP used
If You Build It, Will they Come?
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EPIC INSURANCE BROKERS & CONSULTANTS
Research
• Audit communication effectiveness
• Review mental health program utilization
• Ask key stakeholders what they need to effectively
support employees
• Survey employees what they need:
• An anonymous survey works well here
• Gauge current understanding
• Discover gaps in awareness
• Understand context for resistance
Source: Harvard Business Review
19. Big picture, what we’re trying to achieve with communication?
How will we determine / measure communication effectiveness?
What’s the overarching mental health/wellbeing story hat we want to tell?
What unique groups do we need to reach with specific messages and details?
How will we deliver our campaign –when, and in what order?
When/how can we assess how we did and think about changes for next time?
Reset: Communication Strategy Overview
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EPIC INSURANCE BROKERS & CONSULTANTS
Objectives
Success Measures
Key Messages
Audiences
Media & Timing
Measurement
20. Reframe: Tactics to Consider
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EPIC INSURANCE BROKERS & CONSULTANTS
Connect
the
Dots!
Go beyond
OE
Articulate
your “why”
Avoid
“conveyor
belt”
storytelling
Let leaders
lead
Give
managers a
fair chance
Get
employees
talking
Commit to an ongoing dialog on mental health
and employee wellbeing.
To do it, look beyond the traditional
communication cycle and involve a range of
stakeholders and employees.
22. EDUCATION TO ACTION
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EPIC INSURANCE BROKERS & CONSULTANTS
Establish Benchmarks for
Success
Employee surveys and feedback,
program utilization reports,
employee retention and
recruitment
Engagement Strategy
Create a strategy educating
stakeholders and employees on
resources and how to access
benefit programs
Mental Health Awareness
Training
MHFA, Resiliency, Peer Support,
Emotional Care, Leadership Skills
Identify All Benefit
Resources
Review all your carrier resources,
create a list of all tools and
resources available to your
employees
Identify Opportunities
After resources are identified
look for opportunities to enhance
or expand your mental and
behavioral health offerings
23. MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS 2022
Sleep Awareness Week: March 14 – 20
Mental Health Awareness Month: May
Mental Health Awareness Week: May 10 – 15
Minority Mental Health Awareness Month: July
National Suicide Prevention Month: September
Suicide Prevention Week: September 4 – 10
Suicide Prevention Day: September 10
Depression Education and Awareness Month: October
World Mental Health Day: October 10
World Kindness Day: November 13
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EPIC INSURANCE BROKERS & CONSULTANTS
26. Tools & Resources
Assessment
SHRM: Quiz: Does Your Workplace Support Employee Wellbeing?
https://shrm.org/ResourcesAndTools/tools-and-samples/quiz/Pages/Quiz-Does-Your-Workplace-Support-Employee-Well-
Being.aspx?_ga=2.83563537.627574638.1644440203-1756659708.1626127856
NIOSH WellBQ is a free survey comprised of the five domains of worker well-being identified by NIOSH and the RAND Corporation
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/twh/wellbq/default.html
Center for Workplace Mental Health: Organizational Assessment
https://workplacementalhealth.org/employer-resources/organizational-assessment
Mental Health Calculators
https://workplacementalhealth.org/employer-resources/mental-health-calculators
Policy
World Health Organization: Workplace Policy
https://www.who.int/mental_health/policy/workplace_policy_programmes.pdf
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EPIC INSURANCE BROKERS & CONSULTANTS
27. Organization
Success Stories
American Psychological Association, Center for
Organizational Excellence. The Awards website.
Prudential
Financial. http://www.apaexcellence.org/awards/org
anizational-excellence/oea2017
American Psychological Association, Center for
Organizational Excellence. The Awards website.
Resiliency
Training. http://www.apaexcellence.org/awards/bph
onors/winner/99external icon
American Psychological Association, Center for
Organizational Excellence. The Awards website.
Setting the Bar for Emotional Wellness
http://www.apaexcellence.org/awards/bphonors/wi
nner/86external icon
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EPIC INSURANCE BROKERS & CONSULTANTS
Resources
Right Direction: https://rightdirectionforme.com
Stamp Out Stigma: http://stampoutstigma.com/support.html
Mental Health America Assessments: https://screening.mhanational.org/screening-
tools/
National Alliance on Mental Illness: https://www.nami.org/Home
Mental Health.gov: https://www.mentalhealth.gov/talk/community-
conversation/services
American Psychiatric Association. Center for Workplace Mental Health:
https://workplacementalhealth.org/
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3
28. Mental Health Information
Crisis Support
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
Call 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
Crisis Text Line
Text “HELLO” to 741741
Veterans Crisis Line
Call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) and press 1 or text to 838255
Use Veterans Crisis Chat on the web
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration (SAMHSA): For general information on
mental health and to locate treatment services in your
area, call the SAMHSA Treatment Referral Helpline at 1-
800-662-HELP (4357)
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EPIC INSURANCE BROKERS & CONSULTANTS
National Agencies
• Anxiety and Depression Association of America
• Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance
• Mental Health America
• National Alliance on Mental Illness
• CDC Tools and Resources: People Seeking Support
• CDC Tools and Resources: Public Health & Professionals
*NOTE – this is not an extensive list, there are more resources available.
Support Resources
Notes de l'éditeur
SUZANNAH
The events of the past two years have brought to the forefront emotional wellbeing challenges that employees and employers had been quietly dealing with for years. Many of us were left without the traditional social and emotional safety nets we’d relied upon in the past, while managing through additional life stressors.
As a result of the well-documented “mental health epidemic,” employers can no longer relegate behavioral health to the last two pages of the benefit guide. Employees are increasingly looking to their employer to proactively provide tools and resources to address emotional wellbeing. Employers that aren’t providing this support find themselves facing employee burnout, turnover, and disengagement.
Does your organization have a roadmap to identify your employees’ needs and provide the resources to meet them where they are?
“WHO IS EPIC”
SUZANNAH
Mental Health America: Mind the Workplace 2021 Assessment
9/10 employees report that workplace stress affects their mental health
3/5 employees are not receiving adequate support from manager/supervisors to manage stress
4/5 employees feel emotionally drained and early signs of burnout
65% of employees find it difficult to concentrate because of their work environment (46% in 2018 and WE ARE VIRTUAL)
ONLY 5% of employees strongly feel that employers provides a safe environment for employees living with mental illness
CRAIG
Getting started on assessing Mental Health in your Organization
Is mental health a priority for you organization, do you prioritize “mental health”
Have you done a self check on your organizations tools and offerings?
Carriers
Brokers
Promoting national/local resources
Are your offerings “inclusive” for everyone to join and interact with the resources based on region, community, how they identify
Are you engaging with your employees, are you an active participant or “if we build it they will use it, field of dreams approach”. What is your culture
Did you identify measurables/data points that you want to improve at your organization?
CRAIG
As an organization mental health doesn’t just fall on the employees, organizational culture and the working environment play a major role in mental and emotional health.
As you start to assess your organization and start to focus on mental health start at the organizational level
Does your organization provide a safe and supportive environment, can employees reach out to their managers, colleagues and HR team members with struggles and issues. Does your set-up and workspace design support mental health. Human Spaces reports that one third of office workers would be influenced by office design in their decision to work at a company.
Well-lit
Natural light
Well-ventilated
Ideal temperatures
Connected to nature
Adequate space
Acoustics
Connected color, pattern, texture scheme
Are your front line managers trained and equipped to help employees who feel safe and supportive, if not training are available through EAP’s, Learning Management systems and other partnerships that can lead training sessions to empower your leaders
Do you have a policy around mental health at the work place? What goes into a mental health policy you may ask, the policy should acknowledge that mental health, illness and disabilities exist and that employees should feel confident that they can disclose them at work, or not, but either way a policy should acknowledge mental illness and asking for help is okay. The policy should review all benefits available to support employees who might be in need of assistance with a clear explanation of how to use the benefit and who the benefit is available too (some benefits might only be available to on-plan medical enrollees while others are available to all employees, family members and sometimes extended families. The policy should also detail that reasonable accommodations for mental health can and will be explored and that these requests will be kept confidential.
CRAIG
Personal Barriers
Stigma
Cultural beliefs
Race/Ethnicity/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity
Trust/Mistrust
Benefit Barriers
Lack of information/benefits communications
Denials
Referrals
Pre-authorizations
Out-of-pocket expenses
Care Network Barriers
Inadequate network
Limited or restricted network
Out-of-network costs
Engagement Barriers
Gaps in understanding
Concerns about privacy
Insufficient/ineffective communication
CRAIG
Traditional wellbeing/wellness strategies focused on physical etc…
Individuals dealing with mental health issues might be struggling with chronic care conditions and another barrier to health
Holistic Wellbeing Strategy
Physical
Mental
Social
Financial
Environmental
Personal development
Why decide/include in your strategy
Employees respond that they can’t go to their managers for stress or burnout
Employees feedback that they want tools that exist, need to help them connect the dots
More so needed now in a remote workplace
For those still in office finding natural leaders to support efforts and educate on tools
Makes the culture an inclusive place, reframes mental health: i.e. broken bone, chronic condition
Ability to address stigma around mental health – THROW TO MIKE
Brain is an organ and functions just as your other organs, heart, lungs need training and activity
Education and Promotion
Monthly/quarterly newsletters
Subject matter expert presentations/seminars
Participation in May Mental Health Awareness Month
Participate in October Mental Illness Awareness Week (Oct. 2 – 8)
Manager/Supervisor mental health awareness training
Examples
6 week mindfulness workshops
Weekly meditation sessions
EAP presentations
Mental health communications (American Psychiatric Association Center for Workplace Mental Health ICU (identify, connect, Understand) and Right Direction campaign
Dedicated wellness, benefits or corporate page
Why decide/include in your strategy
Stress isn’t bad, in fact some stress is good
What we do with the stress can be negative, these programs focus on how to grow, learn and manage stressors
Employee feedback shows low morale, high stress, lack of productivity
Prevention/Proactive Selfcare
Digital CBT Tools / assessments
Carrier tools – mystrength, sanvello, happify, moodfit
EAP tools – betterhelp
combination of cognitive therapy and behavioral techniques. CBT helps building a set of skills aimed to change our thought patterns, beliefs, attitudes, and ultimately our behaviour. And all of this without requiring a life-long treatment but with an approach which gives results in the near future.
There are helpful and unhelpful ways of reacting to a situation, often determined by how we think about them. CBT helps stopping negative thought cycles
Coaching/Mentor programs
Mindfulness/meditation seminars
PTO/MTO policies
Why decide/include in your strategy
You see access/utilization is at a minimal
Increase in STD/LTD mental health claims
Employees are leaving or outreaching to HR regularly
Intervention/Treatment
Integrated/Progressive Employee Assistance Programs (EAP)
Return-to-work policy
Mental Health Benefits
Geo access reports
Cost barriers/copays
Accepting new patients
Employee/Caregiver support programs
Virtual/Digital Benefits
Expanded network with “available” providers
Concierge support actually schedule appointments
