Employers should be helping their workers combat mental illness and other mental health issues—for both the workers' sake and for the sake of their organizations, according to the report, "Mental Health- A Workforce Crisis," commissioned by the CEO Roundtable of the American Heart Association.

"Investing in the prevention and treatment of mental health disorders can provide employers with longer-term cost benefits, as well as improved health outcomes," the report's authors write. "The data shows that overall the cost of doing nothing is higher than investing in evidence-based prevention and treatment strategies."

The 40-member CEO Roundtable, led by Johnson & Johnson chairman and CEO Alex Gorsky and Bank of America Corp. chairman and CEO Brian Moynihan, believe that it is the duty of employers to provide comprehensive mental health prevention and treatment programs because, first of all, adults spend most of their waking hours at work and that's where a good deal of their stress comes from.

Moreover, helping workers can ultimately help an employer's bottom line, as effective treatments can lower total medical costs, increase productivity, reduce absenteeism and decrease disability costs, according to the report. On the other hand, doing nothing can exacerbate everyone's costs.

Indeed, 68 percent – or $1.7 trillion — of the total $2.5 trillion global cost of mental disorders is due to lost productivity from absenteeism and presenteeism. Between 2011 and 2030, the cumulative cost related to mental health is predicted to be $16.3 trillion, higher than the estimated cost for cardiovascular disease ($15.6 trillion) and cancer ($8.3 trillion).

To confront the challenges of mental illness and other mental health issues in the workplace, the AHA CEO Roundtable is advocating that employers implement the following strategies (developed by an expert panel convened by the AHA's Center for Workplace Health Research):

Visibly position leaders to be proactive champions of a diverse and inclusive culture that supports a mental health-friendly workplace
Develop and implement a Mental Health Plan that is easy for all employees to access and understand
Communicate clearly and often to employees about the organization's mental health policies, medical benefits, programs, education resources and training opportunities
Offer a comprehensive package of employee-centered medical benefits and programs
Involve employees in all aspects of mental health-related workplace decision-making
Leverage community partnerships to promote the internal and external objectives of the Mental Health Plan
Identify evidence-based opportunities to continually improve the mental health and well-being of employees

It all starts at the top, members of the CEO Roundtable assert.

"As CEOs, we must lead by example and engage other business leaders in redefining workplace inclusiveness and powering a mental health movement," they write.

Read more:

Instant Insights /

7 strategies to address mental health in the workplace

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