Partnership for Workplace Mental Health
August 2009, E-Update
PARITY NEWS
Parity Issue of Mental HealthWorks Now Available! Visit the Partnership website to download the latest Mental HealthWorks. This issue includes the following stories:
- Straight Answers to Employer Questions About Mental Health Parity
- Employers Talk About Their Successes with Mental Health Parity
- Everybody Wins When Employers Help Employees Who Are in Personal Financial Distress
Mental Health Parity White Paper. Milliman provides an in-depth white paper on mental health parity and how, by planning now, employers stand to see benefits from improved productivity and reduced sick days and disabilities. The white paper, �Preparing for parity: Investing in mental health,� also provides tips for health plans to consider as they make changes to comply with the new law.
Download a copy of the paper here.
Results from Partnership Parity Survey. According to a recent Partnership survey, only a few employers are considering dropping mental health coverage in response to new parity rules that takes effect January 1, 2010. The survey was designed to better understand current corporate benefit design and what kinds of changes employers intend to make in order to comply with the law. Thank you to all who participated. We appreciate you taking the time to share your experience!
Download a copy of the survey results here.
Partnership News
Have you caught onto Research Works? Quickly becoming our most popular resource, Research Works reviews the research literature, suggests action steps, and provides employer case examples on specific workplace mental health topics. Our latest issue focuses on employee engagement. Did you know that only one in five workers is highly engaged in their work? Find out what that means for your bottom line and more by visiting the Partnership website and downloading your copy of Research Works.
To be added to the Research Works distribution list, please email mhw@psych.org and indicate �Research Works� in the subject line.
New Employers added to EIO database. Employer Innovations Online helps employers take action to address mental health at the workplace by providing case examples of successful corporate approaches. New to the database are stories from H-E-B, the State of Ohio and the Union Pacific Corporation.
- Family owned over multiple generations, H-E-B operates under the philosophy, �Anything that�s
right for the partners (employees) is the right thing to do.�
- The adoption of parity for mental health and substance abuse produced such successful financial cost savings that the State of Ohio
moved all employees under one mental health and substance abuse plan.
- Staff began looking beyond individual cases of conflict among employees and began addressing systemic organizational issues. By empowering others and building trust, the culture at Union Pacific Corporation has been changing �one interaction at a time.�
WORKPLACE MENTAL HEALTH NEWS
Depression Costs Severely Underestimated. Research from the non-profit Integrated Benefits Institute shows that employers severely underestimate the prevalence and lost productivity costs associated with depression. Employees disabled by depression are away from work significantly longer than other employees on disability leave. The true lost-time costs of these cases � including disability payments and lost productivity � are 2� times the costs of medical care and pharmacy benefits combined.
For more information, visit the Integrated Benefits Institute here and download the brief.
New Employers Guide to Employee Assistance Programs. The National Business Group on Health has released: An Employer�s Guide to Employee Assistance Programs: Recommendations for Strategically Defining, Integrating, and Measuring Employee Assistance Programs. This report is designed to help employers realize the strategic value of an employee assistance program and to acknowledge the contributions EAPs make in helping organizations achieve their business goals.
To download a copy of this report, visit The National Business Group on Health website.
Ignoring Insomnia Costs Employers Billions. According to a new report from the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, insomnia accounts for an estimated $42 billion in direct and indirect health care costs each year. Sponsored by Sanofi-Aventis U.S, the research finds that 70 million Americans may suffer from some form of insomnia.
For more information, read the story in Employee Benefit News.
Mental Health Care: Better, Not Best. The May/June issue of Health Affairs explores the state of mental health care in our country, and while several advances can be noted, the contributors feel there is still a long road to travel. The journal touches on a wide range of topics from implementing parity, to the changing roles of psychiatric hospitals, to veteran�s mental health.
To read abstracts and for more information visit the Health Affairs website.
Information for Employees and their Families
The ABCs of Starting School. In the coming weeks, many children will start school for the first time. For most, it is an exciting and positive experience, but for some the transition can be challenging. The American Psychiatric Association offers parents the following tips to help reduce the anxiety associated with starting school.
For more information, visit Healthy Minds. Healthy Lives, the APA�s website for public education.