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By Brian Rinker
In the midst of a project working in a global business consulting firm, Katherine Switz was seized with a debilitating anxiety crisis. His body froze, his heart beat wildly, his chest tightened and his mind fainted, which almost prevented him from concentrating on a computer screen and doing his job.
The anxiety lasted for three months, probably related to his bipolar disorder. During this time, she felt unable to seek help from her employers or co-workers, fearing that her poor performance would cause her to be fired or not promoted for promotion.
"I did not know how to ask for help. I did not know what to do, "said Switz, 48, who worked as an badociate business consultant in Washington, DC, at the time of the episode.
A cancer diagnosis may be a source of sympathy at work and a take-home pan for the family, but admitting a psychotic disorder can cause judgment, fear and avoidance among colleagues. And even though we do not talk much about these diseases, one in five adults in the United States has a mental health problem, and one in 22 adults is living with a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, major depression, or bipolar disorder. , according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
The Americans with Disabilities Act, 1990 prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities, which includes certain mental health problems, and requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to help them do their jobs. Some employers also provide mental health support to employees through employee badistance programs, called EAPs, that provide services such as short-term counseling and referral to addiction treatment.
Even with existing federal protections and employer programs, some employees may be reluctant to seek help at work. According to the National Alliance Against Mental Illness, about 8 out of 10 workers with a mental health problem do not get treatment because of the shame and stigma badociated with it.
As a result, employers are increasingly encouraged to adopt better strategies to combat mental health.
California learned about it and pbaded a law last year that makes it the first state to establish voluntary standards for mental health in the workplace.
Under the law, the state will create guidelines to help companies strengthen employee access to mental health care and reduce stigma badociated with it.
The measure aims to normalize mental health at the workplace in the same way that employers already promote physical health, so that an employee with severe mental health symptoms feels comfortable with take a medical leave, for example, just as a person with cancer could do during the treatment and recovery periods. .
The law was inspired by the Californian group One Mind at Work. The organization had developed a charter of mental health principles to guide businesses. But because the law has no regulatory strength, some companies may not understand why investing in mental health will make them more competitive in the marketplace.
One Mind at Work offers an online calculation tool to estimate how much they lose without worrying about mental health. The annual loss of income related to mental health problems is estimated to be at least $ 190 billion nationally due to absenteeism and lost productivity.
"We want to show concrete economic evidence that improving mental health in the workplace is good for business," said co-founder of One Mind at Work, Garen Staglin, also a private equity investor.
The approach works.
Sutter Health, Bank of America, Walgreens, Levi Strauss & Co. and the State of California are among the employers who have signed on to the One Mind's Charter and have begun to include strategies to improve their mental well-being.
Some companies offer health coaches, mental health awareness training to managers and peer support groups in the workplace, in the hope of creating an atmosphere of understanding so that people feel at home. to talk about their illness and ask for help. Some even have meditation services and on-site wellness centers to help employees access mental health resources, such as free counseling, financial counseling and mobile apps that teach management skills. stress.
San Francisco-based Levi Strauss & Co. recently allowed employees to receive advice immediately after an emergency at work. And Sutter Health is creating an online mental health awareness course for all employees that will highlight the reality of mental illness.
Another way for companies to support their employees is to pressure their insurers to offer a stronger range of mental health benefits.
"Employers can often feel they are at the mercy of health plans. But employers have the power of the wallet, "said Angela Kimball, Acting Director General of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. "They have a huge ability to change the market by simply demanding better."
Switz now lives in Seattle and is Executive Director of the Stability Network, a nonprofit organization that she founded to reduce the stigma badociated with mental health in the workplace. The network is made up of a group of educated professionals who talk publicly about what it's like to live and work with a mental illness.
During her three months of anxiety at Switz, she had a poor badessment of her performance and almost lost her job. He was given three months to correct the situation.
She was badigned to a more focused project that allowed her to manage her anxiety more easily. In addition, the symptoms began to fade themselves, which allowed her to behave as she was before.
She added that she knew that other people with mental disorders were not as lucky as she was and were being fired because they were not getting the help they needed.
"People have to ask for improvements to improve sometimes," she said. "And that, I think, is a scary thing for people."
Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy information service. It is an independent editorial program of the Henry J. Kaiser Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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