Role of Mental Health Programs
Several institutions have introduced mental health care programs and it is worthwhile to assess the impact of these programs:
It is imperative in today’s situation that employers focus on mental wellbeing of their employees by ensuring that the employees have access to mental health benefits too, including referrals to mental health professionals and other services. Employers who offer mental health benefits are at a significant advantage over those who do not supply such benefits in that they are likely to have lower incidents of job burnout, onsite violence, and workplace injury.
Pallab Mukherji of Equitas Small Finance Bank believes that creating a healthy and safe workplace - one that protects both the physical and mental health of the employees - has seen a rising demand especially during the pandemic crisis. And this, he says, has motivated today’s organizations to proactively invest in programs that promote positive workplace mental health.
HOLISTIC WELLBEING
Equitas, he says, in its concerted efforts to promote a workplace that caters to its employees’ holistic wellbeing, has embraced the Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Its features include round-the-clock access to EAP services in the likes of counselling therapy and other allied mental health resources at no cost to the employees and his/her family members. “We have consistently reinforced the importance of mental health by propagating the EAP services through various channels like posters, SMS blast, etc, and garnered more visibility and created awareness amongst employees to avail the EAP services. The continued effort has resulted in an annualized utilization of EAP services at around the industry average with 30% of the beneficiaries being repeat users.”
The EAP partnership has resulted in (i) enhanced quality work life (ii) improved workplace relations (iii) reduced absenteeism and (iv) engaged workforce. “We complemented the external tie-up with internal measures where every single of the 16,000+ employees of the bank was contacted telephonically by HR to check on their wellbeing. In the unfortunate event of the employee being hospitalized, the team connected with the family and ensured that their needs were met, whether through ensuring supply of provisions or helping them find medicines or providing for supplementary nutrients post recovery as part of the covid policy. We had Covid Warriors and Health Champions across geographies constantly liaising with medical utilities and ensuring the best of services for our employees and their families,” he explains.
He mentions t hat t he major impediment comes from the societal context of the employee where a few of them feel there is a stigma associated with reaching out to an EAP provider or indeed any help from a 3rd party. “We overcame this through steady communications, virtual town halls and myriad of initiatives around our core theme of ` Care and Connect’,” he adds.
EAP VERY HELPFUL
Liberty General Insurance too introduced an EAP to support employees and their families’ wellbeing. “While there was reluctance to acknowledge the mental health concerns in wave, we found that employees leveraged this service more in
wave 2. There was good participation in the live webinars to address mental health indicating the openness and willingness to know about the subject more,” says Priya Vasudevan.
She is confident that these programs create awareness and bring in support, but the biggest limitation is that employees hesitate to identify and acknowledge the concerns related to mental health the same way as they do for their physical health.
HELP FROM SPECIALISTS
Ramakrishna Vyamajala of HomeFirst Finance says while there is a general increase in awareness and efforts put in the space of mental health, there is still a long way to go to effectively deal with this issue. He says a lot of new age startups in this space have helped organizations come up with unique programs that have helped employees open up about their issues and seek help. He believes that the biggest achievement in this space is the awareness with organizations dealing with it as any other health issue and allowing employees time, space and opportunity to deal with it. “The limitation continues to be the mindset that does not allow the employees / any individual to open up about the issue that they are facing. It is still considered a taboo in many households and the fear that they may be looked down upon. All of these contribute to employees / individuals not seeking help at the right time / early stages,” says he.
MENTAL HEALTH ASSESSMENT
Ruchira Bhardwaja of Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance lists the achievements in these areas:
Making mental health self-assessment tools available to all employees to check-in on themselves and seek help proactively.
Offering free or subsidized clinical interventions for stress, depression from a qualified mental health professional, when appropriate. Offering health insurance with no or low out-of-pocket costs for depression medications and mental health counselling.
Providing free or subsidized counselling, or self-management programs to deal with anger, stress, panic and grief.
Circulating regular communication, such as brochures, fliers, and videos, to all employees about the signs and symptoms of poor mental health and opportunities for treatment.
Hosting seminars or workshops that address depression and stress manage ment techniques, like mindfulness, breathing exercises, and meditation, to help employees reduce anxiety and stress and improve focus and motivation.
Creating and maintaining dedicated, quiet s paces/ s i l e nt hours f or relaxation and healthy disconnecting from work.
Providing managers with training to help them recognize the signs and symptoms of stress and depression in team members and encouraging them to seek help from qualified mental health professionals.
Giving employees opportunities to participate in decisions about issues that affect job stress.
She also lists the limitations:
Piece-meal approach to Interventions: Interventions are more short-term and knee-jerk reactions to what competition is doing. These could result in addressing the symptoms but not the cause.
Stigma and embarrassment: Negative and judgmental attitudes toward mental illness create shame and fear of being identified at the workplace. Difficulty recognizing symptoms: People don’t know they’re dealing with a mental health issue/ concern as many aren’t sure how to identify them as passing or a serious condition. Preference for self-reliance: There is a tendency to rely on oneself arising from the awkwardness of sharing personal details to fears of exposure and trust in the professional environment.
MENTAL HEALTH PANDEMIC
Sai Suryanarayana of Fincare Small Finance Bank recalls how mental health experts have been warning that a mental health pandemic will follow covid surge and it will need all the help to alleviate the impact of the stress, anxiety, and depression on the affected ones.
“We have now been taught in the hardest way that employee wellbeing is critical to a business’s success. Without healthy and productive employees, organizations with limited resources to ride the fallout, are unlikely to survive or fully recover the lost ground. The silver lining is that companies are stepping up the support for employees by expanding their mental wellbeing initiatives. These include changes in employee assistance programs, discounts on mental health apps, virtual service options like yoga classes, access to information and webinars on emotional health or sometimes a buffet of services and letting employees to choose,” he says.
He adds that at Fincare, there is a `Hello Doctor’ initiative, which offers 24x7 access to doctor/counsellor services through a specialized service provider.
Shwetha Ram of Future Generali India Life Insurance insists that acceptance and adoption have been the key roadblocks and mental health is still seen as a taboo.”
Hence, we notice that organizations don’t want to take this up as a benefit being made available to the employees. I have been fortunate to have been associated with the organizations which were very forward-looking in their approach to this issue,” she says.
A TABOO STILL
Sunil Wariar of Future Generali India Insurance points out that mostly people are amenable when it comes to physical health as it is something which everyone is used to take care of since their childhood. However, with respect to mental health, there is still a taboo attached and many a times people do not acknowledge its existence and often do not know whom to turn to.
Sunil says to support employees’ mental and emotional wellbeing, his company has a 24x7 helpline manned by qualified counsellors to deal with such issues. He lists the achievements of the program as improved quality of life, understanding and dealing with the symptoms one is currently facing; with help at hand 24x7, the chances of the mental health issues getting complicated or out of hand diminishes to a great extent; therapy sessions enable one to understand oneself and one’ personal goals better; anonymity is what people want, and this program makes sure that everyone stays anonymous; the programs provide an online platform where employees can log in and access various podcasts, videos, and interactive programs according to their needs.
He does concede the limitations. For example, negative and judgmental attitudes toward mental illness create shame and fear of being identified. These cases have to be treated with utmost confidentiality and all possible support has to be made. Some young people are not sure how to identify whether their problems are typical or indicate an underlying mental illness. Then, during their developmental years, teens commonly begin asserting their independence. This tendency may cause a preference for relying on themselves. From the general awkwardness of sharing personal details to fears of exposure, distrust often becomes a barrier. Finally, those people burdened by their symptoms may perceive hopelessness that contributes to a diminished desire for help.