Mind Matters: The Flip Side to Wellness

In the quest to build a healthy staff, it’s easy to focus so much on certain aspects that you inadvertently neglect others.

If obesity and obesity-related medical problems are prevalent among your employees, for example, you probably spend a great deal of time and effort educating them about weight-loss measures and promoting diet and exercise.

Physical health issues are, of course, crucial to a successful corporate wellness program. But it’s important not to ignore the flip side to the wellness coin: mental health.

Because mental health issues are difficult if not impossible to spot (as opposed to, say, obesity), you may be unaware of problems that do exist on staff.

And, unfortunately, because there is a stubborn stigma surrounding mental health problems, it’s unlikely that those who need assistance will come forward on their own.

Help your employees and your business at the same time by seeking to expand and enrich the mental health benefits offered by your company. Do your part to promote awareness, education, and potential solutions.

Is mental health promotion really worth your effort? Take a look at these stats from the National Alliance on Mental Illness:

Each year, 217 million workdays are completely or partially lost due to mental disorders.

Workers with depression lose an average of 5.6 productive hours per week, compared to an average loss of 1.5 hours a week for workers without depression.

Workers who have depression cost employers $44 billion per year in lost productive time.

Employees with co-occurring medical and mental-health conditions use more health care resources and have longer durations of disability.

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