According to the CDC, 1 in 5 Americans will experience a mental illness each year, and 1 in 25 Americans lives with a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression. Chances are, you work with someone that is facing a mental health challenge in their life.

Work is not usually the place where mental health issues are brought to light. At work, you are taught to focus on the responsibilities of your role and leave everything else at the door when you walk in. But that is not how our minds work. A person is not able to turn off the difficulties they face when they get to work. They impact you throughout the entire day.

Why You Should Talk About Mental Health at Work: 

In fact, a person’s job can often add to the severity of their mental health condition. Added stress and anxiety can increase symptoms and have a lasting impact. Lack of time and attention to their mental health can cause their issues to worsen.

How Work Suffers When Your Team is Struggling with Their Mental Health: 

• Communication – Active communication is key to a healthy-functioning workplace. When someone’s mental health is struggling, communication can suffer as a result. You may notice the communication channels within your organization are starting to slow down.
• Productivity – The goal is always to get more done in less time, right? When mental health suffers, this is hard to accomplish. Motivation is impacted by poor mental health, which has a direct influence on productivity.
• Performance – The quality of someone’s work may start to decline if they are wrestling with their mental health. They may not have the energy, motivation, or drive to deliver the results they can deliver when they are at their highest-functioning self.
• Morale – When one person or a few people suffer, your whole team suffers. Mental health struggles can impact workplace morale across the board.

Talking about mental health at work and implementing programs that support employees can position your entire organization for success.

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Benefits of Mental Health Programs in the Workplace:

By Introducing programs designed to improve mental health in the workplace, providers can help address the pain points mentioned above by equipping their employees to feel their best. Their team can have the tools they need to communicate effectively, work productively, and perform their best. Other benefits of workplace mental health programs include:

• Prevent Burnout – Burnout is work-related stress that results in physical or emotional exhaustion where one feels a lack of accomplishment or a loss of identity. This can be a direct result of mental health issues and added stress from the workplace. Implementing workplace programs can reduce the risk of burnout.
• Reduced Sick Days – Recent studies show that mental health benefits can result in as much as 25% fewer missed workdays. This means that employees feel ready to come to work and less like they need a mental health day.
• Reduced Employee Turnover – Another study shows that 42% of employees with access to mental health benefits are less likely to leave the company compared to 27% of those without access.

Common Workplace Mental Health Programs: 

• Improved Mental Health Coverage – Offer more affordable mental health coverage that makes it easier for your employees to access the care they need.
• Mental Health Days – Offer your employees designated time off that they can take if they need to for mental health issues.
• Access to Mental Health Professionals – Have a designated professional that is available to your employees if they need someone to talk to on the clock.
• Intentional Work-Life Balance – Make intentional and communicated time for your employees to practice self-care and balance work with life so that they are less likely to experience burnout. Offer relaxation spaces in the office, regular paid days off, or even fun office outings to boost morale.
• Mental Health Assessment Tools – Offer mental health assessment tools so that your employees can check in with themselves and see whether they would benefit from mental health care.

How Mental Health Organizations Can Improve Their Mental Health Programs:

Even mental health experts deal with these challenges in their workplace. Burnout and mental health conditions are quite common for those working in this field. It can be stressful, demanding, and draining, and it is vital that employers support their teams to remain successful. So how can they do this?

The above-mentioned tactics are all great methods for improving mental health conditions for those within your workplace, but you should take it a step further. Employers should support their team by also providing them with the tools necessary to minimize stress within their workflow, increase productivity, and reduce burnout.

For large mental health organizations, this means implementing a fully integrated system designed by and for therapists to run large practices. Tools like this should include features such as:

• Practice Management Tools – Enabling your provider’s access to paperless records, comprehensive reporting, and simple scheduling with alerts.
• Intelligent Scheduling – Allowing your team to schedule group, individual, and telehealth sessions with ease, including the assignment of locations and rooms.
• Customizable Note Templates – With access to extensive base templates that are adaptable to our team’s needs and fully customizable, they can easily create multiple custom session note templates with access control. Included Wiley Treatment Planners integration also keeps your team easily focused and on top of documentation, so they do not have to stress about treatment goals, objectives, and progress notes.
• Client Portal – Offer your team a simple-to-use, HIPAA-compliant client portal that offers clients a self-service intake, scheduling, and messaging option to help reduce the work on their plate.
• Billing and RCM – Billing is a headache for any provider. Simplify it with automated billing and RCM, allowing them to create invoices, statements, and payments with batch capability. Create and print CMS-1500 forms and auto-post ERAs with adjustments to reduce time spent posting payments.
• E-Prescribe – Manage medications, review history, write prescriptions, and handle refills, all from their account.

If you are looking for a fully integrated software solution, TheraNest can help. Try it out yourself with a free 21-day trial today!