Employee needs are changing. With the increase in demand for mental health services, companies are making therapists available to workers in corporate offices.
As companies adapt to post-pandemic ways of working, many have spent the last few years updating their benefits packages to respond to changes in workers’ priorities. While employees continue to ask for paid time off and generous retirement plans, they are also asking for comprehensive benefits, including mental health resources.
To meet this need, some companies have introduced access to digital tools, such as meditation apps or online therapy portals. But others have gone a step further to differentiate themselves.
Large global companies, such as Comcast, Delta Airlines and Shaw Industries Group, now offer therapy in their offices and workplaces. These programs allow employees to discreetly schedule a session with a licensed clinical therapist during the workday, often at no cost.
It may be unconventional, but companies say this resource is very popular among employees, especially amid a shortage of mental health professionals and prohibitive costs that would otherwise prevent them from accessing healthcare. .
A new type of profit
Mental health professionals are in short supply around the world. By 2024, according to the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, 122 million Americans live in areas with a shortage of mental health professionals, and the country needs to add about 6,000 specialists to fill the gap. In 2022, the UK Health Service (NHS) reported a shortage of 2,000 qualified therapists.
Working therapists are overloaded. According to the American Psychological Association (APA), 60% of US psychologists reported having no vacancies for new patients after the pandemic in 2022, and 38% reported having a waiting list.
Even for people who find a therapist with availability for new patients, they may not have the ability to schedule an appointment unless they have flexible work arrangements.
These factors, along with high costs in many countries, can prevent people from receiving the services they need. “Therapy is a good solution for many people, but it is very expensive, very uncomfortable, and very difficult to find a therapist that insurance will cover.” [en EE.UU.]” says Jen Porter, Interim CEO of Mindshare Partners, a California-based nonprofit that advocates for mental health in the workplace.
Lack of mental health support can impact employees’ personal lives and influence their work, potentially leading to loss of productivity and increased absences. This is a problem that companies want to address with the introduction of access on site to therapists.
It used to be unheard of to talk about mental health issues in the workplace, let alone attend an hour-long therapy session in the office. However, the stigma around mental health is disappearing and many employees expect to receive mental health benefits as part of the employment contract.
Mary Beth Ryan, who advises clients on behavioral health services at consulting firm Mercer, says workers are more comfortable than in the past seeking mental health care and talking about their mental states, especially younger ones.
Therefore, it has seen a constant increase in the number of companies offering therapy. “We have seen that companies respond by thinking about how to offer a counselor on site as a way to reduce certain barriers to care, whether they are barriers related to location, availability in a certain geographic location or finances,” he says.
Employees take advantage of the opportunity. In the United States, health care provider Premise Health, which offers therapists on site at host companies, it has 94 clinical therapists working in nearby offices. Visits from its therapists have increased almost sixfold since 2020. In 2023, the company made 35,000 visits for 65 clients.
Some of these programs originated before the pandemic, but have grown in the years since.
Delta airline added its first therapists on site in 2019. It started with nine and now has 20 therapists spread across 15 centers in the United States, as well as in cities such as Tokyo, London, Paris, Amsterdam and São Paulo.
Some are stationed at airports. If a problematic incident occurs during a flight – a belligerent passenger or a medical emergency – flight attendants can exit the plane and see a therapist in the attendant lounge.
The company recently added licensed social workers to two centers to connect workers with community resources on domestic abuse and financial issues. In some cases, therapists are available outside of the 9-to-5 schedule, so employees can schedule a session before or after their shifts.
Lyra, global therapy provider on site, states that employee utilization is high. Especially in places like India, where there is less than one therapist per 100,000 people, and workers may struggle to find a way to attend sessions.
“Traveling outside the office can be difficult. There are cities where it takes three hours to travel eight kilometers, so in-person care can be very complicated,” explains Alethea Varra, vice president of clinical care for the company, who adds that the consultation is more comfortable for some workers. , as they may have trouble finding intimacy for a virtual date at home.
Maximum discretion
The therapists on site They are not direct employees of the companies they serve, but rather work for healthcare providers or employee assistance programs. They must comply with the same privacy laws and ethical codes as any therapist in a private practice, and do not share conversations with management or the company.
Therapists Also Understand the Privacy Concerns of Seeking Mental Health Services on site. Providers encourage companies that offer talk therapy to set up their offices in out-of-the-way locations so that walking in doesn’t involve announcing to colleagues that a session is taking place.
Premise Health sets up multipurpose clinics on company campuses, where talk therapy is one of the many services offered. Employees can come in for a flu shot or a 50-minute session to talk about their divorce. Since all services are in the same building, employees can maintain their privacy.
Marriage and family therapist Brad Smallwood, 44, spent three years, from 2017 to 2020, as a therapist on site at the San Francisco headquarters of technology company Square. His office was down a hallway which allowed the sessions to be discreet.
Smallwood says that his work was confidential. Although he was integrated into the company, he followed the same ethical protocol as any therapist. He didn’t greet customers at the coffee machine or lunch tables unless they did so first.
To begin with, the workers thought Smallwood was there to talk only about labor matters. “There was a misunderstanding that my role was to somehow make them more effective, to make them perform better at work,” he says. “From the beginning I made it very clear that I am a marriage and family therapist. Your participation in therapy has no relationship with work performance.”
Once employees felt comfortable with in-office therapy, he says they were able to talk openly about their concerns: anxiety, depression, substance use, loss of loved ones, divorce. Smallwood says his schedule filled up quickly.
Despite being private employees, some therapists integrate into the company culture for the benefit of their patients. Companies often ask them to participate in activities outside of therapy sessions. “Mental health interventions, including therapy, are most effective when they are tailored to cultural contexts,” says Porter of Mindshare Partners.
Alyson Smith, Delta’s Chief Health and Wellness Officer, estimates that about 60% of therapists’ time is focused on individual sessions. “(The rest) spend their time walking around, seeing how people are doing, going to team meetings where they talk about topics like maintaining a healthy mind or meditation, simply to make their face and name known, so that be a recognized source of trust and stability.”
Being immersed in the work environment improves attention, says Smallwood. Coming from a similar background to the clients also helps. “We pay attention to the demographics of the company to make sure that people are supported by suppliers who can be representative of them and share experiences from a cultural point of view,” says Lyra’s Varra.
Make it as easy as possible
In March 2023, the media company Comcast added a full-time bilingual English-Spanish therapist to its Telemundo offices in Miami, Florida. When workers have a place where they can easily access care from a therapist they identify with, people feel more comfortable talking about mental health, says Dorothea Scattaglia, the company’s director of emotional well-being.
Many mental health experts and business leaders hope that these employee programs will encourage workers to seek the help they need.
“Our employees, like everyone else in the country, have a hard time accessing suppliers, so we’re making it as easy as possible for them,” Scattaglia says. “There is still some stigma around mental health, but this breaks down barriers – just having someone they are familiar with be the entry point to other services and programs.”
If this approach is successful, both parties will benefit. Not only will workers be able to access the services they need, but companies will be able to retain happier, healthier employees. American flooring manufacturer Shaw Industries Group added therapists on site via Premise in January 2020.
Rachel Bolden, who leads employee health and well-being at Shaw, says having attention on site It is part of the company’s retention strategy. “We wanted to take care of [los empleados] in a way that wasn’t just at work,” he says, “but also took care of them at home.”
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