October 2024: Celebrate World Mental Health Day
Hi, Practice parents!
Today is World Mental Health Day, and the World Health Organization has declared that this year’s focus is on mental health at work.
Specifically, the WHO says, “It is essential for governments, employers, the organizations which represent workers and employers, and other stakeholders responsible for workers’ health and safety to work together to improve mental health at work. Action to address mental health at work should be done with the meaningful involvement of workers and their representatives, and persons with lived experience of mental health conditions. By investing efforts and resources in evidence-based approaches and interventions at work, we can ensure that everyone has the opportunity to thrive at work and in life.” 💯💯💯
I learned this morning that only 19% of employees access available mental health benefits at work… despite 91% of employees reporting that mental health impacted their work performance or productivity. 🤯
Take a moment today to mark World Mental Health Day by digging into the benefits your employer offers– there may be more supports available to you than you’re aware of!
Common employee mental health benefits include…
Medical insurance provides mental health coverage; HMO plans cover mental health sessions with paneled, in-network providers and PPO plans provide reimbursement for mental health sessions with out-of-network providers
Employer Assistance Plans (EAPs) that cover a certain number of therapy sessions for employees and often also dependent family members (whether or not employees are enrolled in company sponsored medical benefits)
Workplace wellness or educational programs and workshops related to mental health
Employee resource groups or equality and belonging groups serving specific employee segments based on identity, needs, or interests (e.g., LGBTQ employees, employees of specific racial or cultural identities, or employees who are also parents)
Free or subsidized use of mental health-related apps (e.g., Headspace, Calm)
Our team at Practice San Francisco is delighted to have partnered with two corporate employers over the past year to provide services focused on mental health; we’ve worked with parent employee resource groups at two large (>2,000 employees) employers in the Bay Area and in New York City to offer employee support groups as well as wellness workshops and programs related to child and parent mental health– and we are looking to expand the roster of employers with whom we work (and the range of employer programs we offer!).
We could use your help in two important ways!
One, if you would like our team to provide supports for parents at your employer, please reach out to your HR or DEI leadership and let them know that you would like this to happen! Feel free to copy us (hello@practicesanfrancisco.com) and we can take it from there.
Two, we’d really love your feedback and insights. Please fill out this very quick and easy survey (<5 minutes!) to help us learn more about Bay Area employer benefits, and you will be entered to win a $100 Amazon gift card.
Thanks in advance for your support!!
Warmly,
Nina Kaiser, Ph.D.
Founder, Practice San Francisco
P.S.-- a few more resources about parent mental health and well-being:
This episode of the NYT The Daily podcast from yesterday: The Parents Aren’t All Right (32 mins)
In case you missed it, the Surgeon General actually put out a health advisory about parent mental health at the end of August! Check it out here.
Two pretty accurate captures of where I feel like most of us probably are at in terms of mental health in this moment/season: one, two. (Instagram) 😬
