Mental health in the workplace: get the most out of your EAP
Mental health is still a taboo, research by Time to Change showed that almost two thirds of people with mental health issues felt isolated, because their surroundings refused to acknowledge their predicament. Quite often, these surroundings are colleagues, as most people see more of William from finance, than of their loved ones. This is why mental health in the workplace needs to be dragged into the limelight. Employees should not feel embarrassed when they want to reach out for mental support.
While EAP's across the globe are doing a wonderful job offering mental support for employees, we feel the threshold can still be lowered. One way of doing this, is offering online mental health modules. For instance: use online cognitive behavioural therapy for employees who need guidance from a counsellor. Another example is the use of a self-help library, to increase resilience and keep people from reaching crisis point.
Help employees bounce back, with online CBT
It is well know that cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can help people who are confronted with unmanageable stress, anxiety or moods. Minddistrict offers a platform that supports CBT online, which lowers the threshold considerably.
Let's consider anxiety for a moment. Symptoms of anxiety in the workplace are common. One can be anxious of larger groups, during lunch breaks for instance. Or of working with a certain colleague. Sometimes anxiety can prevent people from functioning well at work or at all. In these cases an EAP can provide a counsellor. He or she can start a CBT trajectory, digitally supported by our module for social anxiety.
Same goes for mood. When someone feels down for an extended period of time, the employee might have a depression. Our CBT-based module depression can be used for blended treatment by an EAP therapist. The module helps people to acknowledge and challenge unhelpful thoughts and behaviours.
Use our work stress module to improve mental health in the workplace
Of course a diagnosis can exclude someone from care, which is why we also offer a range of transdiagnostic modules. One example that's very relevant for mental health in the workplace is our work stress training. The module can be guided by counsellor, or used as a self-help solution.
Resilience for sustainable mental health at work
Offering online CBT is one way of dealing with mental health at work. But it isn't very proactive. Of course, coaching trajectories can prevent people reaching crisis point, but they aren't very accessible as there's always a financial and emotional threshold to cross.
You can lower this threshold by giving employees access to an online self-help catalogue. When employees work on and practice with a number of themes, their resilience will increase and mental health problems will be reduced.
One of the themes is physical health, which has a direct relation to mental health. Exercise, diet and smoking all have an impact on the mental wellbeing of employees. For instance, regular physical activity leads to mental alertness, energy and positive mood. Have a look at our module 'Focus on your health'. We also have a number of diaries that will help people exercise more and develop healthy eating habits.
Another very important theme is relaxation, creating mental space for thoughts to sink in and creativity to pop up. A number of methods will help employees relax during and outside of office hours. Have a look at the modules 'All about learning', 'Learn to relax' and 'Mindfulness'.
Discover our solutions for EAP's
It doesn't stop at the examples above. Minddistrict offers secure communication tools (including video calling), a CMS for creating your own content and a much more extensive catalogue of interventions. We'd love to show you the platform in action!
Request a demo here
Or further explore the possibilities of Minddistrict here