If my main source of mental health information is the truly excellent 1990s sitcom Frasier, my second main source is a podcast called Psychology in Seattle, hosted by Dr. Kirk Honda.
There are many parallels with Frasier, including A) the practice of psychology in, you guessed it, Seattle; B) the use of some modern audible medium to get the message across (talk radio in the 1990s vs. podcasts in 2016) and C) the celebrity cameos from people like Halle Berry, Macaulay Culkin and Kevin Bacon. NO! That last one’s a joke … .
A recent podcast I listened to was titled “Depression.” Dr. Honda had an expert on depression (not Kevin Bacon) talk about the clinical illness. Some takeaways were:
- Even if somebody with depression isn’t showing the symptoms, it doesn’t mean they’re not going through it.
- Depression can have serious social implications. For example, if somebody tries opening up to somebody else who has not experienced depression, they may get advice like, “Just try not to think about it,” or something that really doesn’t help. A person might remedy this by finding other people experiencing the same thing. On one hand, this is positive, because it doesn’t allow one to “marinate” in their own depression alone. One the other hand, surrounding yourself with equally sad people may cause a double whammy of depression.
So, how does this translate to the workplace?
The other day I received a new study, “Depression Among Demographics,” which looked at professions and lifestyles that have the highest levels of depression.
“Our study helped us look at the prevalence of depression across industries and lifestyles,” wrote a spokesperson at MentalHealth.net in an email interview. “The signs of depression can be hidden, and the stigma that often comes along with mental illness can make it tough for those suffering from depression to speak up about their struggles.”
Certain findings were of special interest to me: First, the professions with the highest rates of depression are public and private transportation, real estate, social services and manufacturing. One commonality that connects these very different industries is that these are “often thankless jobs in which workers experience the best (and worst) of society on a daily basis,” according to the study.
Second, and not surprisingly, people with private health insurance see a depression rate of 5.3 percent, compared to 7.8 percent with no coverage and 12 percent with Medicaid or CHIP. So, based on these findings, the type of health care an employer can offer may play a big role in depression among employees.
Based on these findings, what are suggestions of improving mental health from both the organizational and the individual perspective?
My point of view, as someone who occasionally researches mental health for this blog, is that organizations should treat mental health issues the same as they would physical health issues. That is, they should acknowledge that mental health has the potential to affect a person’s life and performance just as much as physical health and then offer appropriate resources — even though the symptoms may not necessarily be visible. Offering nothing seems like the institutional equivalent of, “Try not to think about it.”
On the flipside, employees going through this need to acknowledge the mental health problem, even if it doesn’t manifest in visible symptoms, and take advantage of any resources which their employer may offer.
This is all very basic and obvious. However, American Express’ Healthy Minds program is one concrete example of a corporate program which deals with the mental health of its employees. It’s worth revisiting for more specific workplace initiatives.
Andie Burjek is a Workforce associate editor. Comment below, or email at aburjek@humancapitalmedia.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.