Not in the Job Description
Working on an Emotional Wellness Committee was not in anyone’s job description at the public administration offices for Hennepin County, Minnesota, which has 8,000 employees and is the largest of Minnesota’s 87 counties. However, following a 2008 internal assessment of employees’ health, department managers knew that emotional health was an issue they could not ignore.
Shockingly, the study revealed that 53% of employees indicated emotional concerns and listed that three of their top ten prescription drugs were antidepressants. Hennepin County showed a 2% higher rate of depression than comparable government jurisdictions. It appears that these emotional concerns were affecting workplace performance, as the survey showed an increase in requests for information on emotional health topics from workplace supervisors.
When Benefits Don’t Help
Based on an internal review of health care coverage, the team discovered that a long-term disability benefit provided unlimited lifetime coverage for mental health claims, reducing the incentive to return to work. Another obstacle for people returning to work after a mental health related disability leave was the limited support in transitioning back to their former work role. Furthermore, the EAP and disability plan vendors did not offer mental health screening, decreasing the likelihood that emotional health concerns would be detected and treated, and extending the time that these disorders would hinder a employee’s productivity.
To address these concerns, administrators formed an Emotional Wellness Committee and reached out to organizations, including Partnership for Workplace Mental Health, Screening for Mental Health, Behavioral Medical Interventions (BMI) and the local chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), among others to develop more proactive approaches for identification of emotional health concerns, trainings, and interventions to support employees.
Getting Back to Work
With the goal of helping all employees by encouraging awareness and early detection of mental health issues, Hennepin County teamed up with Screening for Mental Health® to offer WorkplaceResponse®, a mental health education and online self-assessment program. The program provides all employees with free access to completely confidential, anonymous online screenings for depression, bipolar disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, eating disorders and alcohol use disorders. After completing a screening, employees have the opportunity to make an appointment online with Hennepin County’s EAP for further evaluation.
In the first two years of the WorkplaceResponse program, 462 employees or 6 percent of the workforce completed the anonymous self-assessment. The percentage of people scoring positive for depression, and who said they would seek further evaluation were nearly identical year over year. On average, 43 percent of employees who completed the self-assessment had symptoms characteristic of depression and more than half said they would seek further evaluation.
The latest screening numbers from 2010 show a drop in the number of employees’ who utilized the online screening. Of those who took advantage of the free, anonymous service, half of them scored “likely” to have symptoms characteristic of depression and 17.5% scored “very likely” for symptoms of depression. While utilization may vary year to year, the value is in giving all employees access to WorkplaceResponse online screening program. As we know, undiagnosed depression in any number of employees can have significant impact on a workforce.
The Emotional Wellness Committee also sought to help supervisors in constructively confronting their subordinates who were experiencing performance issues that may be due to an emotional health concern. As a result, the committee offered a four-hour pilot training for supervisors in various departments. In a 90-day follow-up survey, 49% of the supervisors who attended the training said they had needed to confront a subordinate with a performance issue that might be due to an emotional health concern and that 96% of these supervisors said the tools and resources presented in the training were helpful in this task.
Putting Mental Health First Helped Us Get Back to Business
Another angle the committee took in improving workplace mental health was to create a return-to-work program, for employees returning from disability leave. By working with the county’s disability benefit vendor, the committee was able to provide an on-site case manager and to improve communication in order to close disability cases more quickly. This case manager also works with employees who are struggling before there is a disability claim in order to help keep employees at work.
The financial return-on-investment for the return to work program is substantial. After a one-year review, the new approach has realized an ROI of $81 to $1, which is three times better than the national average for comparable programs.
Anecdotally, the Emotional Wellness Committee reports that the new initiatives are helping to reach out to employees who are struggling.