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On Tuesday, our Expert Perspective advocated for integrated care. Integrated primary and behavioral health care attempts to mold the care system to the whole individual, thereby increasing access to health services by making them more convenient and increasing the quality of care by requiring better communication, coordination, and collaboration among health care providers.

Resources on Integrated Care

To help you learn more about integrated care, we’ve compiled some of the web’s best available resources:

1. The National Association of County Behavioral Health and Developmental Disability Directors wrote of integrated care as being the key to bringing together mind and body.
2. SAMHSA provides a lot of information in their webinar, Integrating Behavioral Health into the Person-Centered Healthcare Home.
3. You can also see how, even five years ago, agencies in the federal government were involved in integration of primary care and mental health care.

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In this week’s posts, Clare Miller of Partnership for Workplace Mental Health outlined why employers should pay attention to mental health in the workplace and offered some examples for how businesses can address mental health with their employees.

Today we offer some other ideas, programs, and information sources for employers who want to address mental health in their workplace.

1.  Cost of Mental Health Training is a free webinar for human resources and employee assistance program professionals from Families for Depression Awareness
2. Families for Depression Awareness also participates in the Massachusetts Workplace Mental Health Initiative, which offers company-specific workplace mental health programs to Massachusetts businesses at no charge. These include the Coping with Stress and Depression workshop for employees, online mental health screening from Screening for Mental Health, and training for managers from CMG Associates

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Clare Miller
Director, Partnership for Workplace Mental Health

Employers who seek to address mental health issues in the workplace have a daunting task. After all, a comprehensive mental health workplace program could include the following:

• developing a mental health policy that complies with federal and state law
• implementing an employee assistance program
• training managers to recognize mental illness and make referrals
• offering mental health wellness programs, such as stress reduction and mental health awareness trainings and mental health screening tools
• supporting employees’ health care needs, including providing adequate health insurance and allowing treatment-related time off
• addressing employees’ concerns about their co-workers, including providing support services in the event of a mental health-related emergency or death (e.g., attempted or completed suicide)
• communicating with employees about mental health to allay their concerns about job loss, stigma, etc., and encourage them to get help

The good news is that there are a number of programs and resources to help employers address their workplace mental health needs. Today, we look at two companies that have successfully introduced mental health programs, and Clare Miller shares information about Right Direction, a new program from The Partnership for Workplace Mental Health and Employers Health.

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