Supporting Employees' Mental Health: Refresh Your Viewpoint

Following the news of Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade passing this week, “mental health” and “suicide”, have topped headlines and flooded social media outlets with an outpouring of support, discussion, and debate. Although more Americans die from suicides than car accidents or opioids, the stigma of this illness often prevents suicide from getting much attention, apart from the publicity of stories like these. Their deaths this week have reminded us all of the vast toll of suicide, a steadily growing problem that claims nearly 45,000 lives a year in America alone.

The Chicago Tribune released an article today that stated: “The list of warning factors for suicide reads, in part, like a catalog of everyday modern ills: lagging self-esteem, depression, loss of relationships or economic security, insomnia. ‘When you look at those lists,’ says Eric Beeson, core faculty member at Northwestern University’s Counseling@Northwestern, ‘it almost seems like who’s not a candidate for suicide?’ And yet, in the wake of highly publicized deaths by suicide, our scrutiny of the act centers on a need to quickly settle on a cause and, on some level, to distance ourselves from it.” The point the article makes couldn’t be truer, in that those listed warning signs of suicide are in fact those that the majority of Americans simply associate as “everyday struggles” or “modern day burdens”; and yet we shun away from discussing them.

In the wake of events like this, my inbox is often flooded with requests for “Mental Health Resources” from my clients. As behavioral health, what I prefer to refer to this area as, has been (and unfortunately, continues to be) such a stigmatized topic, it’s a sticky area that many employers aren’t sure how to touch on. Or want to touch on, given the "risk" of saying the wrong thing. Their hearts are in the right place, but they are unsure promote it, what resources to use, how to word emails, where to point employees too…. basically where to even start, apart from using the traditional employee assistance programs, or EAP. Unfortunately, there isn’t exactly a single flyer or resources that can help with this topic, and I’ll explain why.

As an analogy, let’s imagine how most people approach helping a crying child. You can, of course, opt for a quick solution. You could simply tell the child to “stop crying”. You could give them a lollipop or a treat. Or, you could completely ignore him or her altogether. In my experience, I’ve tried all those listed. However, more often than not, I usually found that all those actions didn't tend to stop the crying for long, or at all. Those of us who have or currently care for children, learn that the better approach tends to be asking the child “what’s wrong?”. We do this because we want to know why they are crying, whether it is something as serious as they hurt themselves, or something as simple as they needed to get your attention to tell you something.

The approach to handling behavioral health in the workplace, or looking at why your employees are needing help, is not too far off. Rather than give your employees a resource by assuming what the solution may be, you need to find a way to learn and begin to understand “what’s wrong”.  

Depression, anxiety, stress, and other behavioral issues aren’t the result of “mental health” as if it is a singular item; “mental health” is a category that consists of all the underlying issues that your employees are dealing with.

If you are anything like the majority of organizations in America, you most likely have employees who have or continue to struggle with conceiving a child. You also have employees taking care of their parents or relatives at home.  You have employees stressed by the burden of their finances: student loans or general debt. You also have employees who are struggling to pay for, or are unsure how they are going to pay for, a medical expense. You have employees struggling with personal relationships, and you have employees struggling with their own identity. These are just to name a few.

I hear about these issues every day. My friends, my family, my coworkers, and myself personally – struggle with these types of issues every day.

As an employer, your job isn’t to solve “mental health” – but it is your responsibility to work toward creating an environment where you support and recognize each employees' "personal issues”. You don’t need a huge budget to foster a community within your company where employees are empowered to share personal stories, where they are encouraged to support each other, and where behavioral health loses its stigma.

Listen to your employees, survey their needs, and do your best to encourage people to talk about what matters - providing resources and information where you can. It begins with leadership, a little courage, and a whole lot of vulnerability – but companies are getting there, and it gives me a lot of hope : )

Learn and explore some resources about the topics that matter to your employees:

• WELCOA Resources: Search Our Growing Collection of Wellbeing Resources
• 2017 Workplace Wellness Report: Mind the Workplace: MHA analyzed over 17,000 employee surveys across 19 industries in the United States, resulting in this two-year long research project that highlights workplace mental health trends.

What are your favorite resources to support employees?