Linked: Are Mental Health Apps Actually Helping Workforces?

The article below has quite a few examples of where virtual mental health services are helping, but there is also this, which I feel like might be highly relevant to the industries we talk about around here:

“Greenwood says many organizations remain reluctant to encourage employees to get the mental help they need, or worse, they make it difficult for workers to set aside time to seek proper support. She also believes workers are still unsure of how to access the services available to them, or even whether they should. “It’s important—if you are going to invest in mental health apps—to pair that with a culture change approach,” she says. “A lot of employees won’t take advantage of mental health benefits if that culture doesn’t exist.””

Look, right now there are a lot of workplaces talking a good game about employee mental health and wellbeing. A lot of them are even rolling our benefits, like mental health apps, that are supposed to be part of the solution for their employees, and they very well help. On the other hand, if you’re workplace is rolling out these types of tools, while still creating a culture that rewards overwork, that frowns upon people taking time away, or that simply requires everyone to be connected and available to their boss 16-18 hours per day, then that is all this is, talking a good game. You have to not only give employees the tools that might help them, but you also need to give them the time and space to use them and take care of themselves. If that’s not your culture, all the apps in the world are not going to make much difference.

The bottom line, if you make a mental health benefit available, and then culturally reward the people who never take any time to use it, the app will not get used by the people who most need it. Your culture matters much more than your benefits package.

https://www.staffing.com/are-mental-health-apps-actually-helping-workforces/

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