A recent article provides interesting and beneficial research results that may help increase the use of mental health benefits in the workplace. This benefit is significantly underutilized!
Despite the increase in mental health benefits available since COVID and the need for the services, the stigma remains and is a major obstacle for employees wanting (and NEEDING) to take advantage of the benefits.
The findings indicate that story sharing among co-workers utilizing mental health benefits and peer-to-peer support increase employees’ sense of psychological safety to seek needed resources. This is well worth the read for planning ideas at your organization.
A start is to:
- Promote employee assistance programs
- Support mental and emotional well-being
- Develop manager listening and communication skills
- Ensure psychological safety
And go beyond to foster communities of practices and story sharing as support and examples of acceptance – normalizing using mental health benefits as any other benefits are used, for example health insurance, savings plans, and vacations.
Story Sharing of Mental Health Benefits
Photo by Luwadlin Bosman on Unsplash