Part One: The Big Picture
This two-part piece is intended to provide guidance to employers on navigating the complicated mix of concerns that can arise when dealing with employee mental health.
Introduction
Over the past 10 to 15 years, U.S. employers have increasingly been encountering employee mental health issues that impact an employee’s ability to perform his/her job duties as expected and require some variety of reasonable accommodation.
Navigating such mental health issues can be difficult on several levels – i.e., personal, professional, and operational.
Complicating this landscape is the inherent relationship between mental health, addiction, suicide, and workplace violence, all of which have been trending in the wrong direction for some time.
The Big Picture
There are some obvious factors that have precipitated this mental health issue trend, including the ubiquitous use of cell phones, social media use, and the fallout from COVID.
It appears that younger people have been significantly more adversely affected by mental health issues than older people, and women are more likely to be diagnosed with anxiety and depression than men by a significant margin.
However, men are roughly two times more likely to die from alcohol and two to three times more likely to die of a drug overdose than women, plus men are significantly more likely to die by suicide than women (almost 4:1).
Interestingly, a study conducted by Mercer and Global Disability Inclusion found that approximately seven percent of the workforce is comprised of employees with disabilities. About half of those identified their primary disability as a mental health condition, which does not include cognitive/learning (attention deficit, autism, dyslexia etc.) or neurological disabilities (MS, cerebral palsy, seizure disorder, Parkinson’s etc.).
Of that group, roughly 51 percent identified anxiety and/or depression as their primary disability.
What Do These Trends Mean for the Workplace?
Obviously, these trends mean that employers will continue to encounter employee mental health issues on a regular basis in the near future.
Employers need to be fully aware of these issues, how to identify them, and how to address them.
In that regard, employers must have legally compliant policies and procedures (including an effective reporting procedure) that enable them to address these issues in a timely and legal manner.
Similarly, employers should ensure that their group healthcare plan provides readily accessible and understandable information regarding available mental health resources, including EAP resources, and how to access them.
As we have seen a rise in the prevalence of mental health issues, we have also seen a rise in addiction, suicide, and other issues where mental health can be a component. These issues are almost always inextricably intertwined and can be difficult to manage.
Accordingly, training management personnel on the following basics is necessary:
- what these issues entail
- how to identify them
- how to respond
- how to discuss them with an employee
- the applicable reporting and reasonable accommodation process
Next Week:
We look at pertinent issues for consideration when dealing with mental health issues at the workplace.
The New Year has arrived.
Is your Employee Handbook compliant?
Like it or not, recent federal and state law changes, regulatory changes and precedent-setting federal case law have necessitated the updating of your policies, procedures and forms.
And these required updates apply to employers of all sizes.
These revisions should have been in place by January 1, 2025.
Synergy Human Resources is available to help ensure that your policies, procedures and forms are updated and compliant for the new year.
