Affordable ways to help your employees tend to their mental health

Long story short: Affordable ways to help your employees tend to their mental health

August 27, 2021 12:12 PM

With the delta variant on the rise and an end to COVID feeling more distant by the day, it’s getting harder for employees to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Mental health concerns continue to creep up, with instances of depression, anxiety and PTSD affecting more employees month over month, according to the latest Mental Health Index. But affordable and accessible mental healthcare tools can help employees get the help they need, before it’s too late.

Leading the charge are mental healthcare giants Ginger and Headspace, which announced a joint venture called Headspace Health. The platform will combine Ginger’s coaching capabilities with Headspace’s focus on meditation and other self-care practices. Having mental health support at your fingertips is also the goal of Big Health, which uses cognitive behavioral therapy in their app offerings.

Allowing employees the time and energy to focus on their lives outside of work needs to be prioritized to prevent burnout from spiraling into more serious mental health issues. Career platform Lensa released the best and worst states for work-life balance. See the list and more of our top stories from the week:

Will apps be the future of mental health?

Can mental healthcare be administered with the touch of an app? Peter Hames, co-founder and CEO of the digital therapeutics developer Big Health, is confident it’s possible. In fact, he thinks it’s the future of comprehensive healthcare benefits.

Big Health aims to help millions who experience chronic sleep trouble and anxiety feel better without medication or a therapist. Instead, the cure lies in cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT. CBT challenges daily behaviors and sets time-sensitive goals, which ideally lead to healthier coping mechanisms and thought patterns. Big Health’s apps Sleepio and Daylight, which provide care for sleep problems and anxiety respectively, essentially offer 24/7 CBT to users. After taking an introductory quiz, the user receives a tailored program to complete at their pace.

Read more:

Will apps be the future of mental health?

Ginger and Headspace announce mental health merger

Two giants in the mental healthcare space, Ginger and Headspace, announced plans to merge to create Headspace Health, a

digital mental health

and well-being platform.

Ginger, an on-demand coaching platform, and Headspace, a meditation and mindfulness app, will combine to provide mental healthcare access to more than 100 million people worldwide, according to a release announcing the partnership. Russell Glass, CEO of Ginger, will lead the team as the Headspace Health CEO. The merger is set to close by the end of 2021, setting the stage for more accessible and tech-savvy mental healthcare in the coming year. As employers prioritize the health and well-being of their workforce, these options can be a lifeline.

Read more:

Ginger and Headspace announce mental health merger

Take it from a psychologist: Here’s what you need in your mental healthcare plans

It’s not always easy to navigate what your health insurance covers when it comes to mental health — but it can make a difference in determining whether or not employees receive quality treatment, if any care at all. Forty-five percent of Americans with clinical-level mental problems have

avoided care

for their mental health needs because they lacked confidence in the mental healthcare system, or because they cannot afford treatment, according to the Mental Health Million Project.

Employers can play a major role in ensuring that employees are getting the help they need by offering options that provide a spectrum of care, and communicating those offerings to employees, says India Gomez, a clinical psychologist with an independent practice in the San Francisco Bay Area. She spoke with Employee Benefit News about the

pros and cons of telehealth

and the must-have considerations employers should include in their insurance coverage.

Read more:

Take it from a psychologist: Here’s what you need in your mental healthcare plans

The 10 best states for work-life balance

Career platform Lensa recently released their

American Work-Life Balance index

, which revealed the best and worst states for maintaining a healthy work-life balance. The study combined a number of factors, including employees’ average working hours, their average commute time, Glassdoor’s work-life balance score and a Well Being Index rank to produce an overall score.

Alternative work patterns — such as four day work weeks — and incentivizing PTO are just a few ways employers can get ahead of burnout and encourage employees to take time for themselves.

Read more:

The 10 best states for work-life balance