Employee mental health: Reaching out is just the start

The more we educate ourselves in mental health awareness, the more the stigma of mental health issues fade away.

BenefitsPro: By Steven Seiden | May 10, 2021 at 10:33 AM

During the Covid pandemic, it has been reported that two-thirds of employees have mental health issue and mental and emotional health will become one of the four leading health priorities for large employers in 2021.

These findings have led many employers and HR teams to grapple with how to address these issues in a corporate setting.

In fact, it is not only the employees that suffer, but many leaders including myself, the founder and CEO of Acquired Data Solutions, Inc. (ADS), who have hit rock bottom. In my experience, it is a learned skill to be able to share our inner selves. Even though parents tell their children it is ok to share anything; our environments, especially the workplace, often tell us something very different. Typically, when an individual has a mental health issue, they are left feeling alone without knowing how to find good resources. We do not imagine that successful entrepreneurs also go through mental turmoil and pressures and when they do, who do they turn to for support?

As I look back on my life, I realize my struggle with mental health started at an early age and it was not until I was in my early forties that I could actually see and name my issue let alone combat it; I am now 53.  For most of my adult life, I used negative coping skills to pretend to manage my health.  Unfortunately, unrecognized or unmanaged mental health issues often create unattended suffering for everyone around them including oneself. Being a CEO and living in a major city has afforded me with great resources (often free) to help me recognize my issue and find the necessary help to create positive strategies including meditation and self-compassion. Not everyone is so lucky! One of my resources is the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, where I discovered a national social enterprise called  LEAD (Let’s Empower, Advocate, and Do) Inc. LEAD empowers companies with mental health and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training, coaching, and consulting. Obviously, I have become very passionate about proactive (versus reactive) mental health education for my team, and I was blown away when I learned LEAD offered the nation’s first certification in Mental Health for companies and organizations like mine.

In 2016, LEAD co-founder Kyrah Altman competed in the George Washington University’s New Venture Competition as one of the only freshman, female, and non-business undergraduate students, winning $32,500 in seed money to incorporate LEAD as a non-profit corporation in her home state of Massachusetts. Three months later, Kyrah became credentialed and recognized as the youngest Youth Mental Health First Aid (yMHFA) instructor in the country for the National Council for Behavioral Health. After years of teaching yMHFA, she was inspired to develop LEAD’s Corporate Mental Health certification, a workplace-specific course that would build organizational resilience and empower every member of a workplace community, from janitorial staff to the CEO.

The biggest joy I received from my initial conversation with Kyrah was that LEAD understood exactly how I felt and how mental health challenges affect everyone around me. So, I took action and scheduled a time for my ADS team to become certified.

LEAD’s Corporate Mental Health certification introduced my team to the risk factors, warning signs, and prevalence of chronic stress and mental health challenges in the workplace and provided my employees with practical skills, tools, and strategies to prevent burnout, promote change-management, and fortify existing DEI initiatives throughout our workplace.

Throughout the certification process, LEAD used interactive discussion, role-play activities, and an ABC (Ask, Be There, Connect) action plan, to identify early signs and symptoms of mental health challenges in our colleagues and effectively respond in both non-crisis and crisis situations.

It is my belief that the more we educate ourselves in mental health education, the more the stigma of mental health issues fade away. Unfortunately, in business, we often only think about the bottom line and return on investment, so how do you put a price on the costs of addressing mental health? Deloitte MCS in 2017, commented that “For every $100 invested in mental health interventions, a company sees a return of up to $600 in improved health and productivity of employees.” Surely that is enough incentive for organizations to invest in a mental health plan like I did with LEAD.

My relationship with Kyrah continues to blossom and we are in the process of looking at reaching out to other CEOs and successful entrepreneurs to find out if there is interest in developing a support network to help each other in times of need.  After all, reaching out is just the start!

Steven Seiden is the Founder and CEO of Acquired Data Solutions with over 20 years’ experience providing technology solutions for the engineering life cycle to government agencies and the commercial sector. To learn more visit www.acquiredata.com