For Kamini Cormier, good mental health seemed like the natural order of things. Then came the epidemic. Back in 2020, when she was forced to isolate herself at home with her husband and adolescent daughter, she began to feel aches and pains throughout her body. She thought she might have contracted COVID-19 and scheduled lab tests and an appointment with her doctor online. But the results did not indicate COVID. her doctor told her something she never expected to hear: overwhelming stress began to assault her body.

“I had to take a step up in taking care of my mental health,” says Cormier, 48, who is the western regional business operations leader for Accenture’s technology practice, a professional services firm. So she did something that a growing number of employees have felt more comfortable with since the pandemic began: Cormier sought mental health help from her employer. She found an online therapist to meet with her weekly (at her employer’s expense) and started using a special app provided by her employer that offers calming music.

“People talk about mental health issues at work the way they used to talk about high cholesterol or diabetes,” Cormier says.

It’s about time. Nearly 53 million Americans – about one in five American adults – will experience some form of mental illness in 2020, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). According to a recent Y-Pulse study, 27 percent of millennials who recently quit their jobs said they did so because their jobs were detrimental to their mental health. Perhaps in response, about 39 percent of employers have updated their wellness programs to expand access to mental health services since the pandemic began, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s 2021 Employer Health Benefits Survey.

“Ten years ago, no one was talking about mental health at work,” says Jessica Edwards, NAMI’s chief development officer. But since the pandemic, more than half of Americans say it’s much easier to discuss their mental health issues.

The Impact of the Pandemic
Working Americans – and their employers – are finally coming around to the idea that mental health care is as important as physical health care. The head matters. In June 2022, Bank of America ran a full-page ad in the Washington Post that would have seemed unthinkable for a major company even a few years ago: “We promote open and ongoing dialogue to help break down the conversation around mental health.” Whether through professional counseling, education or stress management techniques, the ad says, “Our goal is to make sure our teammates get the resources they need.”

Sheri Bronstein, chief human resources officer at Bank of America, says that promoting all aspects of wellness, including mental health, is not new to the company. “We listen, monitor and respond to changing needs,” she says. Through a variety of programs and benefits, she said, “we support our teammates and their families through everyday issues, critical moments and life events – including those we’ve all experienced and faced with the coronavirus pandemic.”

A survey of 2,000 Americans conducted by Collage in February 2022 showed that one-third of working Americans say it is more acceptable to seek mental health support from their employers now than before the pandemic. This is despite the fact that 45 percent of Americans said they would accept “mental health support. On the day off before the pandemic, about 65% of U.S. workers now say they would do so.

Finding Mental Health Allies
Cormier is one of them. She has also become an active volunteer in Accenture’s Mental Health Employee Resource Group. The program helps employees better understand the mental health resources available at the company. Employees are encouraged to attend a three-hour virtual training session that includes advice on how to respond when someone under stress reaches out to them.

Cormier gained the confidence to discuss her mental health issues publicly, in part because Accenture’s CEO made it a priority for the virtual meeting.

“For me, it’s a personal thing,” said Jimmy Etheredge, CEO of Accenture North America. “I have several family members who have struggled with mental health for years. So, it’s something I’ve been very passionate about. It’s okay to be in a bad mood.”

If there’s a silver lining to the pandemic, he says, it’s the way the mental health discussion has come out of the shadows and into the light in many companies. He’s sure Accenture has taken actions big and small to de-stigmatize those conversations.

For example, the company created a “Mental Health Ally” program of 9,500 employees – including Etheredge and his entire leadership team – who were trained on how to support people seeking help. They have received special training on how to support people who are seeking help.

Another 170,000 Accenture employees completed the “Thriving Mind” program to learn how to cope with stress and improve their well-being. The company reported that those who completed the program reported an average improvement of 8 to 11 percent in their ability to handle stress, and 9 out of 10 participants said they felt “significantly” better able to cope with workplace challenges.

Etheredge says he must also consistently adopt best business practices to support better mental health. He aims for 25-minute, rather than 30-minute, conference calls to allow time to get up and stretch for those who schedule a second meeting during that hour. After years of getting used to eating at his desk, he’s also learned to leave for lunch. “I can say that without shame,” he says. Instead of sending business e-mails late at night, he uses a time delay so they don’t go out until the next morning.

“I want people to feel safe, cared for and connected,” he says. “Our future growth depends on the well-being of our talent. We have to stay mindful and take care of the people we have.”

Still not a major concern for all companies
While most HR professionals say that providing mental health care can improve workplace productivity and agree that it can increase employee retention, employee mental health is not a top concern for many companies.

Of the 3,400 HR professionals surveyed by the Society for Human Resource Management this spring, less than one-third said mental health was their company’s top concern. “It’s becoming a priority, but not the top priority,” says Wendi Safstrom, president of the Society for Human Resource Management Foundation.

But some companies may be pulling back on mental health care as employees return to work, according to a survey. While 71 percent of employees said their companies increased their mental health focus after the COVID-19 pandemic, only 25 percent said they maintained that focus in the last year, according to the survey of 500 CEOs and 5,400 full-time employees. time employees in the United States, Australia, Germany and the United Kingdom, courtesy of Headspace Health, a digital mental health platform.

How digital tools can help
The survey also reported some positive steps. According to surveys conducted in February 2022 and March 2022, the use of digital mental health tools (such as teletherapy and meditation apps) by U.S. employees has doubled since 2020.

In 2020, Hartford Insurance added more digital resources to its benefits program to help employees cope with anxiety, including Daylight, a digital anti-anxiety app that teaches techniques for reframing negative thoughts and facing difficult emotions. The company also enhanced its concierge support to help employees find treatment for mental health issues. In April, it added a new medical facility, expanding access to therapy and counseling for employees and their families.

“At The Hartford, we’ve taken a company-wide approach to destigmatize and create an open, inclusive environment,” says CEO Christopher Swift.

A Mother’s Story

That may be one reason Caitlin Tregler was willing to seek mental health assistance.

Tregler, 33, a claims team leader at The Hartford, says she suffers from social anxiety disorder – a form of extreme shyness that can cause her to withdraw from social interactions. The epidemic exacerbated the situation after she became pregnant and gave birth to her second child in the summer of 2020. She found comfort by relying on colleagues and using company resources to support her mental health.

She had an emergency C-section and had to stay in the hospital for an extra week before she could return home due to complications. For a new mother at the time, there was a lot of anxiety due to COVID-19. Although she was seeking a therapist for her illness, she quickly realized – after she started working from home – that it was critical to increase her online therapy visits from once every two weeks to once a week.

She worked from home until February 2022 and now goes to the office two days a week. She recently joined an employee resource group that works to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental health assistance.

“I didn’t think I could work for a company that wasn’t that supportive,” she says.

In the midst of the pandemic, she says, Tregler has learned how to take care of her mental health – including occasionally asking for “mental health” days off “to recalibrate myself.

That’s what positive mental health often requires – the occasional reset.