You probably offer your employees some form of health benefits. But is your benefits package robust enough to fully support your employees’ range of total health needs if they are to be fully present at work and resilient?
One often overlooked area of employee support is for parents of children with mental health concerns. A survey published earlier this year by Lyra Health found that over half of the more than 1,900 U.S. workers surveyed support a child with a mental health concern. Yet, the survey also found that “worker confidence in their employer-provided resources for their kids’ mental health is lagging behind companies’ investments in this area.”
This gap can mean your employees aren’t able to devote the time and attention necessary for peak performance, costing both you and them in the long run.
“Having a child with an untreated mental health issue is going to take parents out of the workplace. Their mind and energy will be elsewhere,” says Kendall Browne, PhD, senior program manager of Workforce Transformation at Lyra Health.
November is National Family Caregivers Month, a time to highlight the vital yet often unacknowledged role of caregivers. For those who support loved ones experiencing mental health challenges, this month is an opportunity to honor their dedication, recognize their struggles, and empower them with resources.
Veterans face unique mental health challenges that too often go under-addressed, from military sexual trauma and transitional stress to the long-term impact of PTSD. These experiences don’t just affect mental well-being—they can shape every aspect of a Veteran’s life, from personal relationships to reintegration into civilian roles. Yet there is reason to be hopeful: today, more than ever, there’s a focus on empowering Veterans as community and workplace mental health leaders. With evolving peer support programs and resources designed to remove cultural and financial barriers, we’re seeing real progress in providing accessible, culturally competent mental health care. By positioning Veterans at the forefront of these initiatives, we can harness their resilience and leadership, creating stronger communities and workplaces while ensuring they receive the support they deserve.
Earlier this year, I attended the European Symposium on Suicide and Suicidal Behavior (ESSSB) in Rome. One of the plenary presentations by Prof Thomas Niederkrotenthaler, of the Medical University of Vienna, illuminated the powerful impact of the “Papageno Effect” on suicide prevention.
The majority of people who die by suicide are of working age, and almost all of them are employed, previously employed or a family member of someone employed at the time of death; however, workplaces are often ill-equipped to provide grief and trauma support after such a tragedy. Many workplaces, if they provide grief support at all, do not usually take into account the complexities or duration often needed to cope in the aftermath of suicide.
…Most men in our survey attributed to any differences in suicide grief between men and women to male socialization to be strong and self-reliant and at the same time, many wished that they had access to more supportive men-friendly resources during their bereavement. We know that family members who have lost someone to suicide have an increased risk of suicide themselves — partly because of the exposure effect, partly because the suffering is so great, and partly because of the yearning to be with their loved one. Thus, we owe it to the men who want different options for suicide grief support — perhaps peer-to-peer, one-on-one, or side-by-side — to find innovative ways to help men honor their losses and find ways to integrate the tragedy into their life’s story.
…The course of a complicated bereavement, like the process that often follows suicide, usually does not follow the straightforward path outlined by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross so many decades ago, but rather twists and turns and circles back on itself through mazes of denial, sadness, anger, shame, blame, and multiple physical reactions. Several authors have described an “oscillating process” in complicated bereavement – a moving back and forth between loss-orientation and restoration orientation, between growth and depreciation…
