Incidences of chronic disease in Canada are on the rise, as are mental health issues, and both are impacting the workplace in the form of increasing drug costs, absenteeism and lost productivity. But the good news is that employers are starting to realize the importance of making investments to improve workplace mental health, according to Karen Seward, executive vice-president, business development and marketing, with Morneau Shepell.
“When you look at employers across Canada, I would say that there is a great focus on health in the workplace and understanding that it’s a business issue,” said Seward during a recent Morneau Shepell webinar on dealing with mental health issues in the workplace. She said that while the prevailing attitude among employers used to be that health was the responsibility of the individual employee, that thinking has shifted as more evidence is uncovered linking mental health issues to workplace-related costs, and as the correlation between mental health and chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease becomes increasingly apparent.
Seward said that current workplace demographics are showing that more employees are working past the traditional retirement age. The result is that this is the first time that five generations are represented in the workforce at the same time. This shift is bringing with it a host of issues related to health and productivity costs for employers. An increasing number of employees are taking care of aging parents, as well as raising children. This is leading to increasing instances of employee stress and absenteeism. According to Seward, in 1999, 6% of employees were absent from work for all or part of a week for personal reasons. In 2009, that figure was 8.2%
At the same time, said Seward, technology is adding to employee stress levels. “[Technology has brought with it] a high reliance on just-in-time information, which really does start to increase the stress of people in the workplace. Being connected all the time to the workplace through technology devices has led to a rising incidence of stress.”
She said that new communication technology has made it easy for people to send messages and information back and forth quickly, but many people lack an understanding of how to effectively craft messages. The end result is misunderstandings and disagreements in the workplace arising from unclear messages, which adds to stress.
Ultimately, the combination of home and work stresses is at the root of a growing number of health, and mental health, issues.
“People don’t leave their problems at home. They bring them into the workplace. Similarly, when people leave work, they don’t leave work at the workplace. They’re taking it home both in thinking about it on the commute home and working at home to accommodate some of the increasing pressures,” said Seward.
Chronic disease rising
Seward outlined some figures related to chronic health disease in Canada. For example, two million Canadians have type 2 diabetes, and someone in Canada dies of a heart attack every seven minutes.
She said both of these conditions are treatable with early intervention, and considering the fact that organizations spend a significant portion of their drug and disability-related employee benefits costs on chronic diseases, it makes good business sense for employers to lead the way in this regard.
“One of the rising programs we’ve seen in employers across Canada is health risk assessments,” said Seward, underscoring the importance of health screening by offering that nine out of 10 Canadians have at least one health risk for heart disease. “The big challenge for us is once an employee learns they’re at high risk, what are the mechanisms and support programs that are put in place to guide that employee to create a treatment plan to ensure they are actively engaging in things that will lower their risk factors? In working with employers, what we’re finding out is there isn’t anything [in place].”
As chronic disease incidences have increased, so, too, have mental health issues. Seward said that more than 450,000 people ages 25 to 64 have a mental health issue, and incidence rates are rising among younger people. “The inability to get access to care is the single biggest determinant of people not being able to resolve mental health issues.”
Seward said that easy, fast access to treatment is the best way for employees to deal with mental health issues. Since people spend such a significant amount of time at work, it is vital for people at risk to be able to access programs through their workplace.
Seward announced that Morneau Shepell has formed an advisory board of mental health experts from across Canada to help its clients manage workplace mental health issues and ensure that employees receive the access to treatment they need. The board will be available to advise client organizations, as well as to help Morneau Shepell develop innovative solutions designed to reduce instances of mental health in the workplace and identify the risks that can lead to such issues.