Ways to Address Behavioral Health Holistically
WAYS TO ADDRESS BEHAVIORAL HEALTH HOLISTICALLY
The scale of behavioral health challenges has grown so dramatically, you need a broader approach. These tips and actionable recommendations can help you address behavioral health full on by improving access to the health and wellness support your employees need, integrating care to treat the whole person, reducing stigma, and creating cultural support for a healthier, more productive workforce. Put access to care front and center.
ACCESS
- Put access to care front and center.
- Expand resources
- Help employees connect with the care they need from expanding what your EAP provides, to considering onsite behavioral health clinicians, to including virtual care platforms, to reducing copays.
- Drive awareness
- When solutions go unknown, conditions often go untreated. Use internal communications to promote the quality, affordability and effectiveness of available resources.
CARE
- Embrace integrated care.
- The healthcare costs for treating individuals with behavioral and chronic medical conditions are 2-3X higher than for those without behavioral health conditions.
- Treat the whole person
- Talk about and model healthcare solutions around the equal importance of physical and mental health, by finding opportunities to embed mental health into wellness efforts.
- Connect the whole continuum
- Support health plan partners that empower primary care providers to collaborate with behavioral health providers so they can coordinate care for more conditions and more employees more effectively.
STIGMA
- Reduce the stigma.
- Start, but don’t stop, at the top
- Involve senior leadership to openly talk about behavioral health, but also include workplace influencers and give managers the training to educate employees about resources and provide support.
- Keep the dialogue going
- Develop ongoing opportunities for your workforce to discuss mental health including new hire orientations on medical benefits, lunch-and-learns, webinars, speaker series and peer-to-peer programs.
- 62% of employees said having someone in a leadership role speak openly about mental health would make them feel more comfortable talking about it themselves.
CULTURE
- Create a culture of health.
- Companies with engaged employees can see as much as 4.5X more revenue growth than those with low engagement levels.
- Expand non-medical benefits
- Offer a broad range of benefits and perks— everything from medical benefits to non-medical offerings like tuition reimbursement and flexible hours, to support a healthier workforce.
- Show that employees’ needs matter
- Build a healthy environment around what your employees need.
- Don't just ask once—go further to create regular formal and informal opportunities for input, and take action.
GIVING FULL HEALTH OUR FULL ATTENTION.
The continued growth of behavioral health conditions across all generations means the time for action is now. Finding solutions that improve health outcomes for your employees and lower costs for your organization will require a full-on approach. We’re here to help. Explore our latest eBook and suite of resources designed to help you take behavioral health head-on at smarterbetterhealthcare.com.