Jim Kinville, senior director at UPMC Health Plan and Board President of the National Behavioral Consortium, said the term “mental health” has been replaced by “mental wellness” to help destigmatize the topic. According to Kinville, since the Covid-19 pandemic, people accessing mental well-being services has gone up by 30%, and through the pandemic and beyond, 35 million more Americans have sought mental health support. Stigma and shame around the topic also have decreased, but there is still work to be done.

The right tools

Here’s a toolbox of tips from Jim Kinville for how to address mental wellness in the workplace.

1. Make sure mental wellness is a priority at the C-suite level no matter the size of the company.
2. Do an assessment of what is available to support employees’ mental wellness needs. Do you have a policy? Do you have an Employee Assistance Program? What does your health insurance offer? What’s your website promoting? Do you have any digital apps?
3. Bring employees into the mix. Have a task force and ask employees for feedback on what they’re looking for. What are the issues? What do they feel is needed? What is not made available in this area?
4. Send out employee surveys and ask how are those results being translated into actionable items to aid in the betterment of mental wellness programs.
5. Make a long-term plan of having a culture committee that would focus on aspects of mental wellness and physical wellness opportunities for employees. Build this into your company’s culture. There should be promotions and training. This will help bring awareness to mental wellness in a positive way for employees and benefit the company atmosphere.

These comments were previously published in the Pittsburgh Business Times as “Wellbeing in the Workplace: Here’s how employers can help employees improve mental health at work.” The original article was written by Lisa Manning.