Today is World Mental Health Day, a time to recognize the importance of mental health and to reaffirm commitments to improving mental health through education, awareness and advocacy. Many plan sponsors look toward mental health trends to stay informed on strategies for their workforce. Read on for key takeaways from a recent International Foundation webcast on 2024 mental health trends.

The after-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in increases in mental health needs across North America. In a 2024 survey from Gallup, U.S. adults reported how they thought mental health issues are handled compared to physical health issues: 38% reported “much worse,” 37% reported “somewhat worse,” and 15% reported “about the same.” The same survey indicates a perception that mental health conditions, including depression and anxiety, have increased over the past five years.

According to a report from SunLife Canada, employers are seeing a rise in mental health care costs, including short- and long-term disability claims. The increased costs are sparking conversations about mental health treatment and leading employers to improve their employee benefits offerings to address mental health care.

Mental Health Trends

Preventing mental health issues is a core theme in the recent International Foundation webcast “2024 Mental Health Trends: Designing a Modern Strategy for Your Workforce,” led by Dr. Ryan Todd, RFCPC, chief executive officer of headversity in Calgary, Alberta. He explained the shortage of mental health professionals in North America needed to care for the millions of people trying to engage in the health care system.

In addition, Dr. Todd shared the following statistics about the workplace.

• Mental health issues account for 50% of disability claims.
• Employees say that 69% of their managers impact their mental health, tied with a spouse or partner. Slightly more than half (51%) say doctors impact their mental health, followed by therapists (41%).
• Employers expect HR and managers to adequately handle mental health situations.
• Empowering both managers and employees will be a key factor going forward.

Community Health Initiatives

Dr. Todd spoke about wide-scale health issues, such as mental health concerns, that affect large numbers of people, saying, “What saves the day with community health initiatives is promoting healthy behaviors and education.” A community or public health model is a framework aimed at making health improvements and preventing disease by addressing multiple determinants of health in categories such as social, behavioral, economic and environmental.

Public health practitioners use four points in a process to identify, explain and mitigate the health situations affecting the public:

1. Gathering data and creating definitions about what is happening
2. Educating and creating health practices to promote healthy behaviors
3. Adopting emerging technology that treats or manages the situation, including vaccines or medications
4. Identifying government interventions or regulations that can help mitigate and address the impact on the community.

Such models have been used to address a wide variety of diseases or health situations that impact people, including epidemics and pandemics such as the rise in tuberculosis from the 1860s to the 1900s, COVID-19, diabetes and obesity.

Employer Actions

“Currently, the gold standard for the workplace is an employee assistance program (EAP),” Dr. Todd said, noting that EAPs are typically used during the tertiary intervention stage when the employee already has a diagnosed mental health condition they are managing. He suggested that employers and communities could do more to intervene in the primary and secondary intervention stages to address prevention and get ahead of the issues.

Todd offered the following additional employer strategies for addressing employee mental health.

• Gain leadership buy-in for supporting mental health.
• Increase the focus on training leaders and managers on skills such as having mental health conversations and managing conflict.
• Train employees to take better care of themselves and create their own resiliency skills that empower them to address their own mental health needs.

To learn more about mental health strategies for employers, view the entire recording of our webcast “2024 Mental Health Trends: Designing a Modern Strategy for Your Workforce.”

Developed by International Foundation Information Center staff. This does not constitute legal advice. Please consult your plan professionals for legal advice.