We have a question for you – how are your people really doing?
Just like physical health, we all have mental health. And virtually everyone’s mental health has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Are your employees prioritizing self-care?
78% of adults say the Coronavirus pandemic is a significant source of stress in their life.
– American Psychological Association 2020
While employee mental health resources are not a new concept, the past year has put into sharp relief that mental health resources are not working.
Here are some reasons we’re seeing:
- Utilization is low – average Employee Assistance Program (EAP) utilization is below 7 percent1
- Availability is limited – more than 60 percent of adults could use more emotional support2
- Stigma slows action – on average, it takes 11 years for a person to seek support3
At any point in life, we are all somewhere on the continuum between mental wellness and mental illness; and for most people, our state of mental health ebbs and flows.
Whether it is building resilience, managing stress, improving sleep, healing relationships, or seeking out the support of a Coach or mental health professional, we can all do things to promote mental health further.
Who Needs Mental Health Support?
We are experiencing an unprecedented level of stress and struggle. And the impact on employee health and performance is broad-ranging and significant.
It is critical to take a comprehensive approach to mental health – one that engages your whole population by:
- Proactively involving people who don’t have a diagnosis but are still struggling, preventing a much more widespread impact across our employee populations, and
- Engaging and connecting people to the care they need when they need it.
Aduro’s Integrated Mental Health Solution is designed to provide resources to employees who are struggling.
Learn more about Aduro’s Integrated Mental Health solution
7 Self Care Tools to Help Boost Employee Mental Health
Regardless of where you and your employees are on the mental health continuum, here are seven powerful tools to help prevent burnout and boost mental health:
- Exercise: Your natural stress response primes you to act, and exercise is a great way to follow through on it. Movement is recommended for your physical health, mental health, and mood.
- Mindful practices: Your body also has a natural relaxation response, and you can trigger it with activities like meditation and yoga.
- Sleep: The benefits of sleep are so extensive and far-reaching, it’s like your superpower against stress and burnout.
- Nutrition: Instead of eating because you’re stressed, you can eat to prepare for stress — with healthy foods that replenish the nutrients your body burns up when it’s coping.
- Social lifeline: A support network of friends and family provides essential benefits both during and between times of crisis.
- Slow living: We aren’t made to give partial attention to one thing after another. Since we can’t slow down the world we live in, we have to slow ourselves down.
- Self-care: It’s okay to give yourself what you need to function and thrive.
Dive deeper into how to support each of these self-care activities in our 5-part series on the building blocks of well-being.
(1) Chestnut Global Partners – Morneau Shepell, 2020. (2) American Psychological Association (APA), 2020. (3) National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), 2004.