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Mental health has become an area of greater interest among employees and people in general, and employee benefits package components have increasingly come to reflect that societal shift toward prioritizing psychological wellness, but one recent survey shows that a large majority of employees are not actually utilizing the mental health-related benefits that are offered.
According to data gathered from 1,500 employed adults in the US, 40% of respondents believe that their companies should be offering more mental health care services, despite the fact that nearly 85% of employees have never used any of the mental health benefits that they already have.
As indicated by the accompanying report, there are 3 primary factors to blame for why mental health benefits are going neglected - employees either are not aware that they have access to these benefits, are uncertain about how they are expected to access these benefits, or are confused about what is covered and what is not. In fact, more than 50% of survey respondents either incorrectly believed that their employee benefits packages didn’t contain any mental health benefits, or they were uncertain whether or not mental health benefits were included.
An analysis of the survey data suggests that the human resources professionals and managers that put together benefits packages should provide additional educational resources that address a variety of learning styles. Further plan leaders should consider utilizing enhanced communication techniques that incorporate a variety of messaging tactics tailored to meet employees at their level and reach them through a variety of platforms - wherever employees are already accustomed to paying attention.
Another often overlooked company practice that depresses mental health benefit usage among employees is not providing enough detail in outlining the mental health offerings to make those employees who may be unfamiliar with mental health services feel more comfortable and capable of navigating through the process of obtaining those services. In fact, the report places emphasis on the importance of providing assistance throughout the care-seeking search in terms of helping employees locate providers that are in-network and are suited to meet the needs of each employee on a highly personalized basis. In total, 56% of survey respondents had never seen a therapist before, so a fair amount of this experience will be new to most who are considering it.
Further, even among those employees who have received in-person therapy, the number still doing so has been reduced by half over the last few years, dropping from 18% before the pandemic to 9% now, which highlights the importance of offering digital programs, chat-based help, online resources, and remote therapy, so that all employees have a chance to find an access point with which they’re comfortable.
That said, while 53% of survey respondents expressed interest in those kinds of technology-enabled mental health services, 97% have no prior experience with digital-based mental health care whatsoever, so this will be a new experience for nearly all employees who choose to pursue it. About 2 out of 3 respondents said they were willing to give these kinds of platforms a try if they were made available, and more than 9 out of 10 respondents who had tried them report either a positive experience with them or a neutral one.
There’s one final insight from the survey that’s worth mentioning, which is that respondents also repeatedly emphasized the importance of access to a variety of children’s mental health services as well, with 80% indicating that coverage for their children’s mental health was more essential than coverage for themselves. In fact concerns about children’s mental health have increased since the onset of the pandemic for about 7 in 10 respondents, so it is an issue is on the forefront of a lot of employees' minds.
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