Now more than a month into 2017, many of us are fully immersed into charting the path to accomplish new goals to improve the health and wellbeing of employees. With new political leaders and ever-changing challenges and opportunities, a fresh perspective on mental health take on more importance than ever. As political battles dramatically play out in the streets and in the news, employers are faced with making decisions on the appropriate ways to acknowledge the external environment, support employees, and focus on productivity. Toward that aim, the Partnership encourages employers to find ways to support employees, affirm the company’s values and promote the company’s vision to bring everyone together toward their shared purpose. Examples of this strategy at work include the numerous CEOs who communicated their company’s policies and commitment to diversity and inclusion following the election. Given the increase in anxiety and uncertainty, it is also a critical time to remind employees about resources the company provides to help employees manage stress and mental health.

Programs to Help You Promote Mental Health Services

The complexity employers face in delivering messages about mental health can already be a sensitive matter. By adding the changing political climate, matters of mental health can become more important than ever. Given this incredible time of transition, employers should not only be engaged but also informed about valuable resources available to them. The Partnership offers two programs employers can use to encourage employees to do just that: ICU Program and Right Direction.

ICU

ICU helps employers promote a culture of emotional health in the workplace and provides a platform to promote its existing mental health programs, such as employee assistance programs. The program was initially developed by DuPont’s Employee Assistance Program for their 70,000 employees worldwide. The ICU program was later donated by DuPont to the Partnership to adapt it for use by all employers and sizes across industries at no cost to employers. A short five-minute video teaches employees how to recognize emotional distress, encourages employee to connect to one another, and when needed, seek help. Learn more about ICU here.

Right Direction

Its other worksite program, Right Direction, focuses specifically on depression and was developed through the efforts of the Partnership and Employers Health, a national healthcare coalition based in Ohio. By providing employers with support, tools and resources, the goal of the Partnership and Employers Health's collaboration is to reduce stigma about depression, which is a leading cause of lost productivity in the workplace. Learn more about Right Direction here.

What’s New for the Partnership

The Partnership team is excited to help employers make 2017 successful as they address mental health within their workforce.

• New website: The new website for the Partnership will be launching in the first quarter of 2017. The new interface will be streamlined to provide a more interactive experience for users. Employers who visit can browse the website based on their company's needs and interest, learn more about other companies' successes, and access tools to improve mental health in their own workplace. Additionally, the new website will allow visitors to follow the Partnership on LinkedIn and check for updates, blog posts, and announcements featuring stories from the Mental Health Works publication. The new website will facilitate employers connecting with the Partnership to stay engaged in our continued growth and collaboration.
• New collaborations: We are pleased to be collaborating with the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions on a Mental Health Summit on April 25, 2017 in Denver, Colorado. Leading thought leaders will come together to share best practices and dialogue about how to stakeholders can work together to solve common challenges around stigma and access to quality mental healthcare. Register today and plan to join us!

Today, more than ever, mental health is receiving more attention as we understand its long-term impact on the American workforce. The Partnership acknowledges today’s challenges and complexities and functions as a resource for all employers. As employers consider ways to make 2017 better, the Partnership encourages the principles of collaboration, capacity building through technology and policy change through advocacy. Applying these principles will not only help drive the social and economic objectives for employers but will also foster a mentally healthy workplace in 2017 and beyond.