Is Your EAP Providing the Right Mental Health Care?

Traditionally, employers have offered basic mental health services through an employee assistance program (EAP). Such programs provide help hotlines, connect employees with phone counselors and offer access to community agencies. But times have changed since EAPs programs were designed.

Mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression have greatly increased due to COVID-19. During August 2020, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that four times as many Americans were currently reporting symptoms of anxiety and depression than in 2019. The CDC uses a survey that asks respondents to indicate how often they feel nervous, anxious or on edge during a given week, as well as whether they feel as if they cannot stop worrying.

Even prior to the pandemic, depression was a prevalent condition. According to the World Health Organization, depression affects 264 million people around the globe. It is also one of the leading causes of disability. The global cost of this illness is estimated to be $1 trillion per year, with expenses being incurred due to lost productivity, increased use of sick days and decreased work performance.

Low Utilization Makes EAPs Less Than Valuable

Employees suffering from depression and other mental health issues usually do not avail themselves of the EAP their employer offers. There are a variety of reasons for this, including the stigma that often attaches to individuals who seek help with mental health challenges. When employees do contact an EAP, they are often in what is sometimes referred to as the red zone, where services beyond what an EAP can provide are required.

However, much lower levels of stress will affect mental and physical health because every person’s mind and body are connected. For example, a study done for the Goodpath Employer Health Index involved reviewing nearly 1,600 individual sleep assessments. The analysis revealed that 79 percent of the people who reported having trouble sleeping also had symptoms of anxiety and depression.

While employees who have lower levels of anxiety or stress recognize that they need help for mental health problems, they just do not see EAPs as a first option. In fact, many employers contacted by Goodpath reported low utilization of EAPs even during the pandemic. The same was true prior to the pandemic. Chestnut Global Partners noted in its 2016 report on trends in employee assistance, organizational health and workplace productivity that just 7 percent of North American employees used a service provided by their company’s EAP during the previous year.

Integrative Care Shows Promise

Employees need a more robust system than the traditional EAP to address mental health conditions. To their credit, employers are searching for ways to provide such services in a cost-effective manner.

Integrative care is an emerging trend in treatment that offers a more comprehensive approach to managing mental and physical health. This is a holistic approach to health in which care providers look at the whole person and consider a range of factors that contribute to causing a condition and its symptoms.

Delivering integrative care involves providing a blend of conventional and complementary treatments. Interventions range from nutrition plans and exercise programs to prescription medications. Mind-body approaches such as yoga are common. Because integrative care combines many forms of treatment, employees have access to completely customized care plans designed specifically for them.

This method of treating mental health issues is increasing. In a paper published by the International Journal of Mental Health Systems on Nov. 11, 2020, authors led by C. Ee observed:

Many individuals with mental health problems have comorbid physical conditions, or may present with substance/alcohol misuse or abuse issues. This results in complex treatment challenges that may not be adequately addressed by a model of care that is solely delivered by an individual clinician using a sole intervention. Mainstream pharmacotherapeutic treatment of mental health problems often have limited effectiveness in completely resolving symptoms, and may cause adverse side effects. Adjunctive treatment approaches, including nutraceuticals, lifestyle and behavior change interventions, are widely used to assist with treatment of mental health problems.

An example of treating a person via a number of modalities involves a man who sought care for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The man’s symptoms caused him to feel moderate anxiety, as measured by the same type of instrument the CDC uses to assess anxiety. Dietary changes, nutritional supplements, medicines, physical exercise and mind-body exercises lowered the severity of his IBS symptoms and reduced his anxiety to normal levels.

Integrative care can also be delivered virtually, which has become especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic. Smartphone apps, websites and videoconferencing allow employees to easily access medical professionals, coaches and counselors. Personalized coaching, in particular, can be key to helping employees stay on track toward achieving better health outcomes.

When employees become healthier, so do the organizations for which they work. In this way, investing in integrative care—giving employees what they need and will use in terms of health and wellness offerings—pays dividends.