Employers struggle as mental health needs grow
Americans, shaken from news of the Uvalde and Buffalo massacres, are looking to their employers for help.
Three out of 10 employees who were emotionally affected by recent mass shootings have sought out their organization's employee assistance program or plan to do so at least in part because of the events, according to a Morning Consult survey of 2,226 working adults for Bloomberg News.
The shootings follow the pandemic and war in Ukraine, both of which have resulted in an acceleration of requests for already-overwhelmed mental health care practitioners.
“We do tend to see an increase in utilization around national tragedies,” said Dr. Dana Udall, chief clinical officer at Headspace Health, a digital mental health services provider. “And we have definitely seen an uptick in recent weeks.”
According to a survey from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans and separate research published in the Journal of Insurance Regulation, average EAP utilization rates are typically below 10%, although they have increased several percentage points during the pandemic as more employees sought help for a variety of issues, including — but not limited to — mental health.
But employers' support is coming up short. A third of workers whose companies offer an EAP or insurance coverage for mental health care think their employer isn't doing enough to support their mental health. That number is double for workers whose employers don't offer either benefit.
Americans' mental health has worsened during the pandemic, a situation made even more dire by a chronic shortage of licensed providers. Federal data shows that 3 out of 4 U.S. counties have a severe shortage of mental health providers, and
therapists surveyed by the American Psychological Association last fall reported a surge in demand for treatment of anxiety, depression, and trauma and stressrelated disorders. Meanwhile, those seeking help are forced to wait weeks to connect with counselors as wait lists balloon.
“Employers have increasingly seen the impact of the pandemic on their workers,” said Michael Thompson, president of the nonprofit National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions. Many people experienced greater isolation, financial loss and death in the family during the pandemic, which has deepened the mental health crisis.
The focus on how businesses have responded has intensified. On Wednesday, the Society for Human Resource Management and Thrive Global, a behavior change technology company, ran a a full-page ad in The New York Times urging companies to pledge their commitment to their employees' mental health.
Ginger Miller, director of health and benefits for Utz Brands Inc., said she has been taken aback by some of the ways accumulated stress has manifested in the workforce.
She recently got a call from an employee who had to cut back her hours because her husband, who drives a truck for the company, has been suffering PTSD flashbacks triggered by the war in Ukraine. “That never would have occurred to me that one of our associates is having some flashbacks and really struggling with that war,” Miller said. Another driver froze behind the wheel of his vehicle, a reaction later diagnosed as a panic attack from child care-related stress.
“It's almost like OK, COVID was hard enough,” she said. “And then you have the war and political unrest and battles going on. It's really hard to reset and just go about a normal routine.”
Employers are casting about for ways to tackle the crisis. Employee assistance programs that offer shortterm counseling, treatment referrals and other resources have been a fixture since the 1940s. But recently, digital startups like Lyra Health Inc. and Headspace Health have used telehealth to gain ground, streamlining the process and cutting waiting times with virtual appointments and online resources.
Workshops and group sessions through these providers have emerged as one way to serve many people at once with limited resources — especially in the wake of national events that have widespread impact. Lyra, Headspace Health, Talkspace Inc. and others have hosted gatherings on coping with gun violence and race-based hate crime in response to the recent shootings, often offering guidance for parents on how to talk to their kids.
“One of the advantages of group-type support is that they are more readily scalable and can make maximum use of scarce resources,” Thompson said. “In doing so, you're actually able to be more specialized in the nature of support you provide. For example, we know that racial trauma has been an ongoing issue,” he said. “People can self-select into the group session, the best fit for their issues. ”
In the past two weeks, demand for ”disruptive event management” support activities like group sessions has risen fourfold, according to Jim Kinville, a senior EAP director at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. UPMC has created a “toolkit” for customers to use that has tips on how to talk to kids about mass shootings. “A lot of kids internalize this, and that creates its own challenges,” said Matthew Hurford, vice president of behavioral health for UPMC Insurance Services. “So we're discussing it more frequently and making sure it's an open discussion. People are now much more sensitive to the fact that this can happen anywhere.”