Centricity Blog Why Employers Need to Talk About Mental Illness in the Workplace

Agovino, T. (2019, August) Mental Illness and the Workplace. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/all-things-work/pages/mental-illness-and-the-workplace.aspx Many companies are striving to increase awareness about mental illness and encourage more employees to seek treatment. Suicide rates nationally are climbing, workers' stress and depression levels are rising, and addiction-especially to opioids-continues to bedevil employers. Such conditions are driving up health care costs at double the rate of illnesses overall, according to Aetna Behavioral Health. Starting workplace conversations about behavioral health is challenging. Such conditions are often seen as a personal failing rather than a medical condition. The mental illness discussion is also impacted by employee demographics. Millennial and Generation Z employees grew up in an era when children and teens were regularly diagnosed and medicated for conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and therefore don't have the same negative associations with mental illness as their older counterparts. In fact, 62 percent of Millennials say they're comfortable discussing their mental health issues, almost twice as many as the 32 percent of Baby Boomers who expressed such ease, according to the American Psychiatric Association (APA). Increasing Costs, Suicide Rates and Stress Drive Change Mental health expenses jumped by more than 10 percent annually over five years, compared with an annual increase of 5 percent for other medical costs, according to a study conducted by Aetna Behavioral Health. Treating depression alone costs $110 billion annually, and half of that cost is shouldered by employers. Companies spent $2.6 billion on opioid addiction in 2016-an eightfold increase since 2004, [...]The post Why Employers Need to Talk About Mental Illness in the Workplace appeared first on Centricity Solutions.