How to increase utilization of mental health benefits by breaking down access barriers

Despite employees' desire for mental health and wellness support through the workplace, a lack of access to care is still holding some back from the help they need. 

Research from the American Psychological Association shows 92% of workers said it was important to work for an organization that offers employee mental health resources, yet only one in three employers mark this as a top priority, according to SHRM. Employees who do not have access to proper care for their mental health conditions may find themselves less confident at work, less productive, and missing days, reports the World Health Organization. Due to the threat this brings to a business's bottom line, the need for employers to remove any remaining barriers to available care — and normalize support — cannot come soon enough.

"It took a global pandemic for employers to realize they should support the whole person, but also the prevalence of depression," says Karishma Patel Buford, clinical psychologist and chief people officer at mental health solution Spring Health. "[But] there are more companies right now that don't have mental health services than do, so we have a long way to go."

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When employees are at the point they need to work with a mental health professional, multiple things can stand in the way to care. By implementing mental wellness resources like Spring Health, which offers quick access to a well-matched provider, employers remove two of the largest barriers — a long wait and wasted time looking for the right expert — Buford says. Recent research from Spring Health emphasizes the demand for mental health resources, finding a 40% increase in their customer usage over the past few years. 

Leadership can supplement access to care through benefit offerings by assessing the wellness of their employee population through ongoing points of contact, helping to determine what next steps in support might be most impactful — something Buford does with her own employees. To help employees battle burnout, Spring Health implemented Focus Fridays on which employees have no meetings, and they hold panels on mental health that involve the members of the C-suite sharing their own journeys in an effort to destigmatize the topic.

"We measure how well our employees are thriving, which means high mental health and high performance," she says. "It is about creating a culture where people can truly thrive, and that means their best self on the job and in their life." 

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This combination of efforts by an employer is what makes mental health support most effective, says Buford. By coupling benefits, resources and leadership involvement, employees receive both access to the right care and the confidence to utilize it.

"Don't just not offer up this benefit on a silver platter; make sure people use it and see that it's genuine," she says. "The difference between companies who push out this benefit through us and say, 'Hey, here's some mental health services, go use them,' versus companies where the CEO is talking about their own mental health journey and their own use of therapy — that opens up everything. It gives people permission. It normalizes it."