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New
York City Business Community Launches City-wide Depression Initiative
Prominent Leaders Gather to Discuss
Workplace Mental Health Management
by Becky Pietsch
“Somebody
who is depressed has to come to work every day and do the job that
he or she is paid to do, so I would say to anybody, any executive,
‘Look, this is an important employee – savvy, trained.
You have an investment in him or her. Help him. Help her.’
In other words, part of the cost of doing business successfully
is to establish some kind of a plan for people who work for you,
for your company…This is part of life and this is part of good
management. I really believe it.” -- CBS News Correspondent
Mike Wallace
On
September 19, 2006, the New York Business Group on Health, a coalition
of businesses and organizations devoted to employer health benefit
issues, launched a mental health initiative that called upon the
New York City business community to take action in addressing depression
in the workplace. The event, “Depression, Employee Well-Being,
and Business Performance,” featured an interview with CBS News
Correspondent Mike Wallace by Dr. David Whitehouse, chief medical
officer for strategy and innovation at United Behavioral Health.
The
Employee Perspective
In his interview, Mr. Wallace provided candid insight into his experience
with depression and the attendant stigma of mental illness. “You
do not want to let the word ‘depression’ escape your mouth,
and you did not want to talk about it in the workplace.” After
undergoing treatment such as medication and talk therapy, struggling
with relapses, and even attempting suicide, Mr. Wallace summarized
his experience by saying, “There are so many people who, either
themselves or in their families, have to deal with depression. To
be able to help somebody else helps you, and there is the joy of
being able to say, ‘Hey, I know about it. Look at me, I came
through it.’”
The Employer Perspective
The event also featured prominent business leaders in New York City,
including Michael Critelli, chairman and CEO of Pitney Bowes; Daniel
Conti, vice president and manager of the employee assistance program
at JPMorgan Chase; Keith Dixon, president and CEO of CIGNA Behavioral
Health; Brendan Dougher, New York Metro regional managing partner
of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP; and Barbara Hill, CEO of ValueOptions.
Mr. Critelli discussed and shared with attendees lessons learned
by Pitney Bowes, a $5.8 billion-dollar company. Depression, he said,
affects ten percent of the US population and is the leading cause
of disability in the United States; by 2020, it will be the second
leading cause of disability world-wide.
Futhermore,
Mr. Critelli noted that untreated depression in an employee leads
to increased absenteeism and decreased productivity. “It is
important to have a healthy population and a culture of health that
leads to employee loyalty, engagement, and satisfaction,” he
said. Pitney Bowes has recognized the problem and understands that
the company’s ability to engage its employees (by providing
them information on prevention and early intervention, creating
an environment that encourages them to contact their EAP if needed,
and welcoming back employees to the workplace) is critical to the
company’s overall performance.
The other panelists’ comments supported those made by Mr. Critelli.
Daniel Conti from JPMorganChase spoke about the importance of appropriately
training managers and supervisors to be able to discuss and refer,
when needed, employees to their EAP. Mr. Dougher from PricewaterhouseCoopers(PwC)
discussed the recent change at PwC surrounding the issues of work/life
balance, in which the company looked at how the workforce culture,
environment, EAP, and disease management programs are integrated.
He noted that above all, what truly matters is the respect and appreciation
that the employer shows employees. Since the development, implementation,
and continued revision of this strategy, PwC has begun to see a
positive impact in the workplace, including reduced rates in employee
turnover.
As follow-up to his interview with Mr. Wallace, Dr. Whitehouse also
outlined key areas for employers in the audience to consider:
-
Culture: What is the culture of your company? Do employees
feel comfortable disclosing mental illness or seeking help through
the EAP/human resources?
- Stigma:
Is there a difference in the stigma of mental illness among higher-level
executives versus the rest of the employee population?
- Access:
In the case where an individual’s mental illness prevents
them from being able to access treatment, are there systems in
place to have a family member or other loved one help the employee
navigate the system?
Overall,
this sold-out 250-person event provided a forum for employers to understand
several issues with accessing depression screenings, employer intervention,
and treatment for employees in the workplace. Attendees listened to
fellow employers speak about the lessons learned in managing employee
mental health. These lessons included employers’ struggles and
successes in their efforts to improve the lives of employees and their
loved ones, ultimately allowing companies to take care of not only
their employees but their bottom lines as well.
Becky
Pietsch is NAMI-NYC Metro’s advocacy associate.
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