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Nurturing Minds: Fostering Mental Health Awareness and Organizational Support
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Nurturing Minds: Fostering Mental Health Awareness and Organizational Support
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Segment:0 .
Welcome to this. This webinar nurturing minds, fostering mental health awareness and organizational support. My name's bill baldauf. Yep you might want to, people. We just started, so people are starting to come in. So you might want to just wait a second. I'll wait. OK Yep.
Sorry it's.
OK I think we're good. OK hi, everybody. Thanks a lot for attending and welcome to today's webinar. Nurturing minds fostering mental health awareness and organizational support. I'm Bill Kasdorf. I'm a publisher and technology consultant and a longtime member or past president of SSP and a member of the mental Health Task force, which is this is the first in a series of webinars from that task force.
Before we get started, I've just got some housekeeping items to review with you. First of all, the attendee microphones have been muted automatically. When you have questions for the presenters, please use the Q&A feature in the Zoom to enter questions for either the moderator or the panelists. And then you can also use the chat, just communicating directly with speakers and other participants as usual.
But questions that you'd like to have specifically addressed by the speakers, please put them in the Q&A. Closed captions have been enabled, as you might expect, on an accessibility oriented session. You can view the captions by selecting the More option on your screen and choosing Show Captions. And this session is being recorded. And it'll be available to registrants following the event and anybody who registered for this event will be sent an email when the recording is available.
A quick note on code of conduct at today's meeting. We're committed to diversity, equity and providing an inclusive meeting environment that fosters open dialogue and the free expression of ideas. Free of harassment, discrimination and hostile conduct. We ask all participants whether speaking or in the chat, to consider and debate relevant viewpoints in an orderly, respectful and fair manner.
At the conclusion of today's discussion, you'll receive a post-event evaluation via email. We encourage you to provide feedback to help shape future programming, including the following webinars in this very series. And it's now my pleasure to introduce Randy Townsend. Randy is President of the Society for scholarly publishing and has served in leadership positions for the Council of science editors and the association media and publishing networks association council, and has chaired their committee for both AM and AM and p and SSP.
He's actively supported fordisc, which many of you I hope are familiar with and contributed to the development of many of their freely available resources. At origin editorial, Randy takes innovative approaches to lead and implement peer review strategies. Randy was the inaugural editor of editor in chief of the Journal of ethics and publishing and is an associate professor chair of the master's in publishing program at College of Professional Studies at George Washington University.
So, randy, I will turn it over to you. Thanks, bill. Want to be able to share my screen. Give me one second.
Here we go. All right. Thanks again, bill. Bill and Carol Meyer have been instrumental in organizing this webinar for you today, and I want to be sure that I give them their flowers. The alarm buzzes in the early morning and the sun isn't even up yet.
I get up, get dressed, feed the kids, drive to work, and I'm there in the office, in the chair, in front of my computer. But there's a cloud above my head. I can hear voices of people talking around me. I smile mechanically, when asked how I'm doing and say I'm fine. But I'm really not. I'm worried about my kids. I'm worried about having enough food for them.
I'm worried about getting to and from daycare with construction traffic, and I'm just exhausted. I've been trying to put on a happy face since my youngest daughter was born. And I just can't. That's an excerpt from put on a happy face, a personal reflection of grief and loss in the workplace, written by Holly Koppel and the scholarly kitchen and seemed appropriate to open today's webinar with those words.
Normalizing conversations around mental health helps in reducing the stigma often associated with mental health issues. It's a step towards increasing awareness and promoting and promoting mental being. It's a step towards a supportive space rooted in empathy and compassion that can bring out the best in each of us and allows us to amplify our productivity and performance.
At SSPs 20, FY23 annual meeting, I stressed the importance of mental health in our industry. A childhood friend of mine had recently lost his brother and son within six months of each other, both to complete its suicide. I thought about my own struggles with post-traumatic stress that originated from being held hostage with a gun pressed to the back of my head, and how even to this very day, innocent moments can remind me of that trauma.
I realized that mental health is not a topic that we usually discuss in our industry events. In our professional lives. We tend to hide the vulnerable pieces of ourselves so that the shiny parts remain visible. The reality is that 84% of employees reported that at least one workplace factor had a negative impact on their mental health.
Many employees who left their jobs during the Great resignation cited a strain on their mental health or lack of support from their employers as a reason for doing so. Nearly 1 billion people worldwide experienced some form of mental health condition, according to the World Health Organization. Rates of already common conditions such as depression and anxiety went up by more than 25% in the first year of the pandemic.
In the United States alone, 50 million adults experience at least one mental illness, and 55% of adults with mental illness have not received any treatment. More than 12 million adults have reported serious thoughts of suicide. That number doubles for adults who identify as multiple races. Aside from those numbers, I can close my eyes and picture the countless amount of family members and friends who say they're fine every time I ask how they're doing.
Maybe they're really not. As I approached my term as president, I thought about the people that make up our industry. I wanted you, our industry professionals, to be reassured that if you or someone close to you are among those numbers, you are not alone and that there is support. I convened a very special task force of past presidents to brainstorm how we can and should support our members.
The call to action was met with overwhelming support. Now I ask one question. How can demonstrate support for members that are struggling with mental health challenges. We can't be all things to all people. And generally speaking, we're not psychologists or psychiatrists. We're concerned members of an extremely talented, brilliant, creative and compassionate community of scholarly publishers.
The 13 member task force approached the question with respect and integrity, and we considered everything that we felt would provide the warmest embrace to friends and colleagues. The task force came up with nearly 30 ideas, which were organized into five strategic initiatives. These initiatives which were presented to the SSP board in October, included posts in the scholarly kitchen. Freely available webinars.
A member survey dedicated to mental health questions. A resource hub. And an affinity group. I'm proud to say that we made progress on two of these initiatives already. Scali kitchen has featured seven articles related to mental health topics, with topics that include practical tips for publishers, the impact of stereotypes on mental health, disability and neurodivergence grief and loss and racial battle fatigue.
The authors have come from all areas of our community, including our leaders, veterans, seasoned professionals, early career student members and organizational members. In November, we launched the mental health awareness Mondays in the scali kitchen. This webinar, as Bill mentioned, is the first of three freely available webinars being organized by members of our community that are scheduled for 2024.
I'd like to Thank David Crotty, head chef of The Scarlet kitchen, for his support. Now We are planning to launch a member survey later this year. The results will inform how we approach the development of a resource hub and be used to define the objectives in establishing an affinity group. I want to sincerely Thank each and every person that confided in me in private and in public that shared their stories and their support.
That came forward in the call to action that let me know that they are ready to be called on to serve. I hold each conversation close to my heart and they remind me why this work is so important. We are here today, tomorrow, and always for you. And at this time, it's my pleasure to introduce our first presenter, Lili Garcia Walton is Chief People officer and general counsel of silverchair, where she architects the company's people strategy for more than 20 years.
Lili has successfully led technology, education, media and professional services organizations through transformative change by preserving strong culture, operational excellence and a sense of mission. Lili is passionate about maximizing human potential, and she proudly serves on the boards for computers for kids and Bryant and Stratton college. Lili is an employment attorney and a certified senior professional in human resources.
She has a BA from Stetson University and a law degree from the University of Virginia. Lili is a resident of Nelson county, Virginia, where she shares a cottage in the woods with her husband, two boys, three rescue cats and a Yorkie poo. There will be time, as Bill mentioned at the end of the presentation, for questions. And once again, want to remind you to please post your questions in the Q&A box and we'll answer as many as we possibly can after the last presenters.
But right now, please join me in welcoming Lili Garcia Walton. Hi, everybody. I feel deeply honored to be joining today. I want to make sure I'm displaying the correct screen.
And I think now I am. So if somebody could give me a verbal signal, if I'm not, I would appreciate that. There's just so much to say on this subject, and I want to acknowledge there's no way I or anybody else is going to be able to cover it all today. What I'm instead hoping to do in the position that I occupy in the series is just to set the table for some thoughtful reflection on where this community should be focusing and relatedly, what its commitments and calls to action might be.
I enter the conversation, as my bio might suggest, from the perspective of a practitioner. I'm an employment lawyer turned HR leader, and I've witnessed in my own lifetime a significant evolution of attitudes and behaviors toward mental health in the workplace. I also enter this conversation as a human being who's personally experienced the great difference that an inclusive and informed perspective on mental health can make in the workplace.
And before I turn the conversation over to my co-panelists from the Center for workplace mental health who will be talking substantively about things that employers can do, what I'd like to do is level set on where we are historically and walk us through the evolution of US employer attitudes in particular toward well-being in the workplace. And I'll share some of the investments my own organization, silverchair, is making in the well-being of its people and closed with just a few practical tips for leaders of people seeking to actively promote a workplace that supports mental well-being.
This is I am no historian and this is an abbreviated timeline, but I'm going to cover some of the milestones that brought us to this point in time where a webinar such as this one could have a high degree of relevancy. The concept of work life balance really started to emerge in the 1970s. But the initial emphasis by employers was on the importance of physical health and substance abuse prevention and treatment programs.
There were some important, important legislative advances during that time, including the Employee Retirement Income Security Act or erisa, which really focused on protecting retirement benefits. But it also set some minimum standards for employer paid health insurance benefits. Late in the 70s. Employee assistance programs began to gain some traction and some popularity.
Again, initially focusing on substance abuse and gradually expanding over time to include mental health services. In the 1980s. Those who lived through it will recall this very well. There was a shift from long term hospitalization for mental illness to community based mental health, which brought some mixed results. During this time, we as a society also confronted the HIV and AIDS pandemic, and that actually brought a lot of additional attention to the mental health impact of illness.
There was a significant amount of advocacy in the 1980s for the Americans with Disabilities Act. What eventually became that law, which which is what we saw in the 1990s. 1990 is when that law was passed, and it was a significant milestone prohibiting discrimination based on disabilities and requiring employers to provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with a disability.
And this included mental health conditions. So that was a significant milestone in public health policy in the 1990s and 1993. Specifically, we also passed the Family and Medical Leave Act. So it's hard to wrap our minds now around the fact that there actually used to be no protection whatsoever for people taking leave from the workplace for things like mental illness and it, including maternity leave.
My mother had to go back to work the day after she gave birth to me, and my siblings. So this was a very important milestone in terms of societal and public policy attitudes toward mental health issues. In the late 90s, we really saw a growing recognition of the impact of stress on employee health and productivity. So the angle then really was it's good for business to pay attention to how people are doing rather than approaching it from a holistic and human centered perspectives.
But regardless, employers at that time, began to offer things like stress management programs and workshops and recognition that there could be some benefit to doing this with the advent of the technology boom and the strengthening tech sector, the big tech behemoths really set a new standard in the early 2000 for workplace well-being, offering a lot of related perks and recognizing that there really was a discernible link between the well-being of employees and the capacity for creativity and innovation.
This emphasis on mental health awareness grew in the mid 2000 and the concept of offering mental health days and things like stress management and resilience training really came into being. And there was an important and little recognized law passed in 2008 called the mental health parity, addiction parity and Addiction Equity act, which required insurance plans to provide the same level of benefits for mental health and substance use treatment and services as they do for medical and surgical care that eventually was amended when the Affordable Care Care Act was passed.
But that was an important step in the direction of ensuring parity for mental health coverage. In the late 2000, during the Great Recession. A lot of employers then started to claw back those being initiatives. Its being initiatives and training programmes, in my experience, are some of the first programs to be cut during difficult economic times. But I will say that the stress of the economic downturn continued to shine a light on the need for more attention to mental health support in the workplace.
The ADR was also passed in 2008. This was a significant expansion of the Americans with Disabilities act, which is important in that it essentially set aside the question of whether somebody had a disability. The explicit intent of this Amendment to the law was to make it much easier to establish a disability existed. And in shifting away from that standard of proof to a focus on whether there was discrimination or appropriate accommodation in the workplace.
This was a significant win for employees struggling with mental health and wellness in the workplace. In the 20 tens, there was continued destigmatisation about mental health issues and a lot of digital innovation in the space. The Affordable Care Act significantly expanded mental health coverage. There are some exceptions for self-insured and grandfathered plans, but it basically required mental health to be included in essential health benefits.
So we may have forgotten all that by now, but that was an important win for the cause of mental well being. In the mid 20, tens, companies, especially technology companies, started to offer far more flexible work arrangements. Telecommuting options. Hybrid work wasn't just a thing of the pandemic. It predated the pandemic. And it was something that had emerged in recognition of the fact that people needed to have more balance in their lives.
There was a significant shift toward de-stigmatization of mental health at work in the late tens, and in 2019. Significantly, the World Health Organization officially recognized burnout as an occupational hazard. And this led to a lot of employers considering more strategies to prevent burnout and promote mental well-being in 2012, this is there are many organizations in a similar space, but that is when the call map was launched, which, as I'll share in a moment, is one of the benefits that we offer are silver champions.
But there during that time, there was a proliferation of mental health startups, including headspace in 2010 that were really focused on bringing mental health benefits to people in a mobile way and creating far more accessibility. And then here we are in the 2020s as a result of the pandemic. There was a very rapid shift to relax regulations that might have made it more difficult for people to access telehealth.
So this vast proliferation that we see now in the accessibility of remote mental health benefits was in part a result of the forcing mechanism of the pandemic. And as you know, we're living this now right. As the pandemic continued, many organizations, including in our industry, adopted permanently adopted flexible work policies, some of which, as we know, are still under debate.
And still haven't completely landed. There has been an increasing emphasis on this idea of mental health days that emerged in 2020 and paid time off reserves specifically for mental health. So the recognition that it's important for employers not to wait until people are sick to offer mental health support, but rather offering some flexibility to let people take the time they need to be well, rather than to wait until they're ill to ask for help.
And there's employers in general are just a lot more open now to discussions about mental health. And it's become acceptable for people to share their mental health challenges with their colleagues and their supervisors. And initiatives such as mindfulness training and being workshops are more common than they have ever been. So we are we're well positioned to solidify and to continue this conversation, and I'm glad to be here having it with you.
In terms of Silverchair's response, we could always do more, but it was helpful for me to sit down and think about a roundup of the sorts of initiatives that we have in place that not only address mental health concerns when they arise, but really create the conditions for people to be well, one category that I'm calling social support is just the routines and norms that we've adopted culturally that support and promote mental well being.
A big one that we recently rolled out is focus Fridays, which basically means our default is not to have meetings on Fridays. We reserve Fridays for heads down, work for, for creative work, for innovation, whatever it is that you might need to work on that requires focus. That's the day to do it. And we encourage people to shift their meetings to the other four days of the week.
Obviously, sometimes things come up and we still have to meet, but certainly it's a big no no at Silverchair to have recurring Friday meetings. And you need to ask hat in hand before you calendar a meeting with a colleague on Fridays for a very long time. We've also had a routine called State of mind, where whenever we have a group meeting, we go around the table and everybody rates their state of mind.
On a scale of negative 3 to positive three, I won't get into all the definitions, but there's an internal rubric and everybody knows based upon what you say, what headspace you're in, and if somebody and we also know one another, we know one another's baseline. So some people are baseline zero, some one, some two. If somebody is off of their baseline, then whoever is facilitating the meeting will usually pause to ask if there's anything that we can do to support.
We have a responsible PTO policy, just a great deal of flexibility in the amount of time people can take and when. And that also includes the concept of mental health days. You really it's very culturally normative at Silverchair for people just to say I need a mental Health Day and there. There is nobody will question that. We also offer, you know, the typical leave policies that other employers offer.
An important distinction is Silverchair does offer paid fmla, which is not widely available. So this is separate from the PTO that people get. There is a designated bucket of four weeks of FMLA that you have access to if you have a qualifying condition and we have employer paid short term disability. I've worked in organizations where short term disability was optional and it meant that employees would try to conserve cash no matter how cheap it was.
And when the time came that they needed it, it wouldn't be there for them. But we offer that as an employer paid benefit. We also have on demand services that people can access. We have an employee assistance program. As I mentioned, everybody at Silverchair has access to the call map, which is mental being and meditation app. And we also have a concierge service that will guide people in navigating all sorts of health issues, including mental health issues, understanding diagnoses, calendaring appointments, determining what is covered.
It's called health advocate. I strongly recommend that to any HR practitioners on the call. And then finally, we just have a collection of what I'm calling specialized benefits. I think the trend and what we're seeing in the feedback that we get from our people is toward trying to offer benefits that people can customize as much as possible to their needs. So one of the things that we offer as an example is we call it It's called a lifestyle spending account.
And what it essentially offers is reimbursement up to $2,500 for medically necessary travel. So if you have to go anywhere for any sort of care, that will be covered for you, no questions asked. And we recently instituted the fringe platform where we just deposit money into somebody's account every month and they have access to hundreds of different types of vendors for any sort of benefit they might need, like last minute childcare, gym memberships, whatever it might be, it's available to you.
And these are just some of the things that we offer in support of mental health. I really think what's most significant is the attitude of our people leaders when in our organizational health survey that index, the relationship between the individual and their direct manager scores more highly than any other. And that really shows up in the way that our people, leaders are able to navigate these sorts of issues.
So, you know, before I turn the conversation over to my co-panelists, I want to leave you with just a few of these thoughts. First of all, understanding the options. One of the things our leaders do very well is just really understanding what we offer and being ready to share those options with the people who work on their teams as issues arise. And if they don't know the options, they will reach out to me so they can share that information directly.
I don't just get people passed along to me. I get a really strong sense that our leaders are hands on and making sure that they're able to be the compassionate face of our organization. And they're also really good at spotting the issues, just identifying when somebody might need more support than they can offer, whether it's actual fmla, leave, an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
That's another just very important responsibility that people, leaders need to take on in an organization that's truly committed to mental well being. We also analyze any sort of performance or conduct problems holistically. So we don't just assume that it's an upskilling issue or somebody has a negative attitude or is unwilling to perform. It could be something else, right.
So we get really curious about the causes of any performance concerns that we see arising in the workplace. And it's often in the context of that issue analysis that the need for accommodations or other support emerges. And then finally, it comes down to adopting the right mindset. And I get very passionate about this next bullet point. Taking care of people and taking care of business are not incompatible. In fact, taking care of people is taking care of business.
Nothing happens without people. And that is the approach that we take here. We adopt explicitly a servant leadership philosophy, and that is the disposition with which every one of our people leaders approaches their obligations. They are also really strong advocates for what is needed. So a lot of the evolution that we've seen in Silverchair's benefits over the last few years is a result of strong advocacy by our leaders.
Sometimes people in individual contributor positions don't feel as comfortable raising their hands and challenging what it is the organization is doing. But our people leaders may feel more comfortable doing that, and they're very vocal advocates for the people on their teams. And then finally and this is something that I continue to work on myself, it's really about leading by example. So modeling self care and self compassion in the way that you enter your role in the organization.
There is there's nothing more powerful in terms of setting the conditions for other people to feel comfortable taking advantage of the flexibility that's available to them. Infuriatingly if somebody here asks me how I'm doing, I will actually tell them how I am doing. And I do that very deliberately, not because it's just because it's an act of self care, but because I know when I do that I'm sending very strong signals into the organization that it's entirely OK for everybody else to do that as well.
That's the kind of workplace that we want to foster. And it really begins with how you show up as a leader. So that's what I have for you today. Thank you very much again, for. For the opportunity to be here and to inaugurate this incredibly important conversation. And I'd be delighted to turn the mic back over to Randi. All right.
Thank you, Lily. Again, for everyone here, please post questions that you may have in the Q&A box. Lily just gave us a lot of really important and valuable information, and we hope that there's questions at this time. I'd like to welcome our next presenter who represents the Center for workplace mental health at the American Psychiatric association, and magellan, who is the associate director for the Center of workplace mental health, where she develops innovative, high impact web based educational content and resources for employers to advance workplace mental health.
Emma builds external relationships with corporate leaders and produces the center's monthly mental health works publication. Prior to her current role, Ms. Jillian was the program manager for the American Psychiatric Association's transforming clinical practice initiative, support and alignment network grant awarded by CMS. Emma, the floor is all yours. Thank you, Randy.
Thank you so much, everyone, for being here today. As Randy mentioned, I am Emma Jellin. I'm the Associate director for the Center for workplace mental health at the American Psychiatric Association foundation. It is a mouthful. I know. Be grateful you're not me, but I want to talk a little bit about the center.
And what we do. Just briefly, we provide tips, tricks, tools, trainings largely for employers. So that they can focus on the mental health and well being of their employees and their families. We work with employers big and small across industries, and we really focus in on workplace initiatives, workplace mental health initiatives. In the areas of global awareness of mental health.
We focus on creating mentally healthy cultures and we focus on increasing access to mental health care for those who need it, right. I'm so grateful to be following Lily's presentation because we work with the lilies of the world, right. We work with the people who are focusing on the mental health and well being benefits and initiatives for their workforce. And I loved all of the slides because what we always say is leadership sets the culture, right.
Anything gets wings, any initiative, any program has wings if it has leadership support. So, lily, everything you outlined. I'm so grateful for Silverchair's commitment to the mental health and well-being of your workforce. It's really important, obviously. But I don't think all of you are the lilies of your organization. And so the way I've kind of structured what I've, I'm going to talk about today is really focusing in on awareness, focusing in on prevalence and the impact of mental health concerns on the workplace, and talking a little bit about where to go when you need to access what you need to access.
So I also, before I get started, want to mention that I'm joined here today by my colleague Shayla Geraghty, who is the heart and soul of the Center for workplace mental health. And she will be in the chat. She will be in the Q&A. She'll be dropping links and resources. But she really is all that the center is. So I want to make sure that you guys know that if you're reaching out.
Before we get started, I want to know if you could join this Poll Everywhere link, or you can send a text to the number at the top, I want to know what you're hoping to learn from today's session, just so I can tailor and target a few of the elements. And if I don't cover them, hopefully be able to identify them in the Q&A or we can have a follow up session. I know this is going to be a series.
I want to make sure that we're covering what you want to in terms of workplace mental health or employee mental health, whatever you want to cover. I want to make sure we're figuring that out. So if you could take a second and join the poll at the top of the screen. And I believe Shayla is going to put the poll information or the link in the chat.
I'm glad you're interested in the topic. OK Other organizations. Yeah I will mention our website is workplace mental health.org and on our website. The front door to our work as we like to say, we have so many case studies of organizations who are doing mental health and well-being for their employees.
Really well. Support your team. Yes, absolutely. During the pandemic, I think that everyone who acts as a manager or a people leader. Your role shifted your position description shifted other duties as assigned. You became the supporter of the mental health and well-being of your team.
We created. Notice talk act at work, which is a mental health training that supports people managers to notice potential concerns, talk to the person they're concerned about and act by connecting them with services and support. So, yes, see what you can improve. Tips for how to talk to your manager about your mental health. That's tricky.
Manage your own mental health. Perfect prioritize with. Yes Yes. OK sorry. Sorry, everyone. So this is great. This is really going to help me set the tone. I'm really grateful. Thank you so much for providing your insights and your feedback.
I hope if we don't cover it today, we will at another date and time or in the Q&A. So the world is changing and mental health and well being are top priorities. And so before the pandemic, workplace mental health and the mental health of employees was abuzz. It was becoming a priority. Employers were recognizing the Roi that absenteeism, presenteeism performance productivity were having on their bottom lines.
But then COVID happened, right. And the pandemic happened and everyone's mental health was severely impacted. Isolation, loneliness, everything. Political and social injustice, a recession. Our workforce and their mental health of our workforce has been hit really, really hard. At the foundation, we like to say there is no health without mental health.
We all have it right. And in fact, 20% or one in five US adults have mental health conditions. Unfortunately, less than 50% receive the mental health services and supports they need when they need it. And that to me, that number is staggering. And honestly, it's probably higher than that. I'm not sure how many of this. Maybe none in fact.
But during the pandemic and even until very recently, the CDC was conducting weekly Household Pulse surveys tracking the number of Americans who were experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety throughout the pandemic, and the rates at which people were experiencing these symptoms were astral comical. We were seeing tripling and quadrupling of people experiencing these symptoms.
And unfortunately, surveys showed and continue to show those high rates and especially for our young professionals, our young leaders, our future leaders. Their rates, you can see on the screen are higher than the rest. And that is really, really important to recognize because when we're talking about the great resignation, as Lily already mentioned, or maybe it was randy, when we're talking about the great resignation, these Gen Z folks, these young professionals, they largely led the charge.
And what we learned from all of that is that money does not talk like it used to. And culture matters. And these young professionals and these people who have left their organizations, they're leaving to find a better culture and a better culture exists at an employer of choice. And so when employers are focusing in on their benefits, on their recruitment, on their retention, they're focusing in on workplace mental health initiatives.
And they're not just checking the box on the EAP anymore, right. They're really looking for services and supports and benefits that are a wrap around for their employee. And we're really, really grateful. I know we already I believe Randy again or Lily talked about burnout, right. I think it was lily, right.
The WHO officially defined it. And burnout. This is the chronic workplace stress that is not managed. And I don't know about you. And feel free to use some emojis. But, you know, these surveys show like, have you experienced burnout in the last six months. In the last year. And I am here to say I've experienced burnout in the last three hours.
Like this is something that is impacting the workforce across the board. High percentages, right. And it's categorized by three things exhaustion, you know, are you is your battery drained? Do you feel like your tank is empty. Are you negative and cynical towards work, co-workers or others in your life. And are you feeling ineffective at work.
Reduced effectiveness or, or do you have a reduced ability to perform your work. And I'm mentioning this not because burnout is a mental health condition. It is not, but because the excessive stress that goes unmanaged that comes from that burnout can lead to and/or exacerbate mental health conditions like depression, like anxiety, like substance use disorder.
And we work with a number of organizations about reducing or eliminating burnout within their workforce. There are six key areas that you can address that really have a large impact. I'm not going to talk about those today. But I am going to mention that reducing burnout is a partnership between the employer and the employee, right. We like to say it's a 70/30 split with 70% being on the employer to fix the culture that is leading to burnout.
But that 30% means you need to take care of yourself. You need to figure out what's right for you in your workplace, what can you control to reduce that burnout. How can you protect your mental health and well-being when you're dealing or experiencing burnout. Connecting with support. Your look at your organization's support benefits. That could be therapy through your or another clinical provider.
Take time off. I know it's hard. I know Lily mentioned mental health days. Not every organization has those, but use your vacation time. I know that feels so disgusting to say. Use your vacation time to take care of you. Use a sick day to take care of you. Make sure you're setting time aside so you can reset and recharge.
Address your sleep issues if they exist. I know when I'm burned out and I am just exhausted. I can't sleep. And that is just so counterintuitive. And sleep hygiene is so important. Make those healthy changes. I know. Reduce or eliminate factors that are contributing to excessive levels of stress.
Can we do that. I don't know. But if it means stopping your Workday at 530, you know, not sending any more emails, that's what it means. And then focusing on self-care, right. That's really important and not easy to do. A year or so ago, we at the center through our right direction initiative, which is an initiative to raise depression awareness in the workplace.
And we through this initiative, we provide resources and tools for both employers and individuals And through the right direction initiative, we conducted a focus group of young professionals with lived experience with depression. And, you know, we asked them what were some tools or resources that you wished were available when you were navigating your depression diagnosis in the workplace.
And the resounding number of them said they wish they know what self-care is in concept, but they needed tools to utilize to take care of their own, to engage in self-care. So we created this self-care toolkit that includes elements like meditation, journal exercises, how to set healthy boundaries, you know, how do you say a kind no emotional intelligence and awareness.
How are you recognizing and labeling your emotions, tools around, managing stress and raising resiliency, you know, bending, not breaking. That's what we say. Creating your own self-care plan and tools. These are all really critical things that you can do to take care of yourself, to engage in self-care.
I think we all know that mental health impacts the workplace, right. If you are dealing with a mental health concern or a condition or a burnout and you are coming to work. You show up with all of your self at work, whether that's whole and well or not, you are showing up with your mental health concern or challenge in the workplace and that is going to impact your performance, your productivity.
And if we're talking about the workplace and the employer. This really does impact retention, retention, attendance, you know, their bottom line, it impacts the organizational culture, your ability to recruit. If people hear that you know, your workplace is not a mentally healthy culture, they're likely not going to want to join your workplace, right.
So these are all ways and things to think about when we're thinking about how it actually impacts you and your workforce. And I'm just putting this up there to say internal, external and community resources do exist. If you, you know, are dealing with a mental health challenge or concern or if you have a colleague who is dealing with a mental health challenge or concern.
You know, Lily mentioned spotting the issue. I don't love the word issue or. A disorder. We don't use those when we talk about it. But being able to recognize a potential mental health concern, what that might look like, you know, in behavior, appearance, mood and thinking, those are the four ways you can capture that. We don't want you to diagnose, but recognizing the signs isn't hard.
And you know what we've heard when we were rolling out our manager training on mental health is that it's not hard to recognize the signs of someone experiencing a mental health concern. It is hard to talk with them about it, and I don't know how to connect them with the appropriate services and support. So we don't want you to diagnose, but we do want you to recognize the signs.
And it is always helpful when employers share a large list or have a repository or a centralized location of all their mental health and wellbeing, benefits and tools and resources for their employees and their families. So that if someone does need to share those with someone who's struggling, they can and it's in one place. And so these right here are what we often refer people to as they're building this compendium. But just for your own input and as you're assessing your organization's own resources.
So if you're again, if you're looking for those resources, do you know about your own mental health and well being benefits. Does your organization OFR supplemental mental health benefits. I calm is one that a lot of people utilize. I think that was something that was discussed. Has your organization launched a mental health and well-being initiative.
I mean, do you do education on mental health. Do you lunch. And learns? Do you does your organization provide mental health training. Do you have an eap? Are all of these shared together. What is your organization doing to reduce stigma. Does your organization promote stress management and resiliency.
Does your organization provide a list of community organizations or resources in the mental health space. I listed some previously, so thinking about this holistically, what do they offer. How can you utilize. And the last thing I'm going to mention is that we spend so much time at work, right. Largely eight hours a day, five days a week, often more.
Your employer is an incredible resource. Either you as an employer or your employer is an incredible resource to get you connected to care and to create a mentally healthy workplace while you're there. And we know that people who connect with care are more engaged in their work. They're more productive for their organization. They miss fewer work days, right. They perform well at high levels and they really reach their potential.
So connecting to care, utilizing your employers resources to connect, to care if and when you need it for a mental health concern is incredibly important. And as an employer offering those benefits that align with the needs of your employees, the mental health and well being needs of your employees is also critically important. So I'm going to stop there. Please stay in touch.
If again, if I didn't cover something you want to discuss, I'm happy to connect via email. Visit our website, happy to take questions in the Q&A. But really, really, truly creating a mentally healthy workplace for all is the aim and the goal of what we do. And we're here to help you if you need help. So great. Thank you, Emma.
There is a question in the Q&A and I think it's directed towards Lily. Do the check ins ever backfire? I would be nervous about sharing my mental state with peers and especially supervisors, for fear of it being used against me. My answer might surprise you, but if you don't feel psychologically safe, you shouldn't share personal information.
Your workplace like, really. And I saw I mean, I think it was Shayla who answered as well. If you trust your HR department, if you feel that there is an internal resource you can go to, certainly take advantage. But I'm not asking anybody here to stick their neck out. But except if you're a leader, if you're a leader in your organization, it is your obligation to push the envelope and to self-identify and do everything within your comfort zone to help to drive the kind of culture that you want to create.
Yeah, we get this question all the time, by the way. And lily, that. That was beautiful, right. Like, you have to know your audience. If you don't feel safe, don't share. But look for someone to ask or share with. And again, Shayla mentioned, it is a great example. I think people often feel like HR works for their boss and largely they are there to help you and support you and help you navigate any benefits that you need to utilize for your own mental health and well-being.
Great are there any other questions before I turn it back over to Bill. No All right. Well, I think we're about at time, so I will personally Thank Emma and Lily for today's presentation. I'll turn it back over to Bill to wrap up our session.
Great Thanks a lot, randy, and Thanks to everybody for participating. This was a really good attendance and an engaged group of attendees. I will have to say that was really quite fantastic to see how engaged you all were. Also, of course, Thanks so much to our two speakers who are just fantastic. I had a feeling this was going to be a great webinar, but man, I'm sure glad we recorded it.
This is just really, really valuable. There's a QR code. I'm not seeing it right now. But the. Maybe Susan can speak up or put something in the chat about there's this QR code. So please scan that and give us some feedback. We particularly value this feedback.
I know people always say that, but we're putting on more of these webinars. So please, more feedback is really helpful to us as we go through this for the rest of the year. And then finally, just a reminder to save the date for the annual meeting, which is in Boston in May. May 29 to 31. We're very soon.
Registrations going to open. So anyway, as, and as I mentioned earlier on at the beginning that this webinar was recorded, so all of you will be sent a link, all the registrants will be sent a link to the recording when it's posted on the website. So if anybody else has anything to add, if not, Thank you again for participating and hope we can see you next time.
Segment:0 .
Welcome to this. This webinar nurturing minds, fostering mental health awareness and organizational support. My name's bill baldauf. Yep you might want to, people. We just started, so people are starting to come in. So you might want to just wait a second. I'll wait. OK Yep.
Sorry it's.
OK I think we're good. OK hi, everybody. Thanks a lot for attending and welcome to today's webinar. Nurturing minds fostering mental health awareness and organizational support. I'm Bill Kasdorf. I'm a publisher and technology consultant and a longtime member or past president of SSP and a member of the mental Health Task force, which is this is the first in a series of webinars from that task force.
Before we get started, I've just got some housekeeping items to review with you. First of all, the attendee microphones have been muted automatically. When you have questions for the presenters, please use the Q&A feature in the Zoom to enter questions for either the moderator or the panelists. And then you can also use the chat, just communicating directly with speakers and other participants as usual.
But questions that you'd like to have specifically addressed by the speakers, please put them in the Q&A. Closed captions have been enabled, as you might expect, on an accessibility oriented session. You can view the captions by selecting the More option on your screen and choosing Show Captions. And this session is being recorded. And it'll be available to registrants following the event and anybody who registered for this event will be sent an email when the recording is available.
A quick note on code of conduct at today's meeting. We're committed to diversity, equity and providing an inclusive meeting environment that fosters open dialogue and the free expression of ideas. Free of harassment, discrimination and hostile conduct. We ask all participants whether speaking or in the chat, to consider and debate relevant viewpoints in an orderly, respectful and fair manner.
At the conclusion of today's discussion, you'll receive a post-event evaluation via email. We encourage you to provide feedback to help shape future programming, including the following webinars in this very series. And it's now my pleasure to introduce Randy Townsend. Randy is President of the Society for scholarly publishing and has served in leadership positions for the Council of science editors and the association media and publishing networks association council, and has chaired their committee for both AM and AM and p and SSP.
He's actively supported fordisc, which many of you I hope are familiar with and contributed to the development of many of their freely available resources. At origin editorial, Randy takes innovative approaches to lead and implement peer review strategies. Randy was the inaugural editor of editor in chief of the Journal of ethics and publishing and is an associate professor chair of the master's in publishing program at College of Professional Studies at George Washington University.
So, randy, I will turn it over to you. Thanks, bill. Want to be able to share my screen. Give me one second.
Here we go. All right. Thanks again, bill. Bill and Carol Meyer have been instrumental in organizing this webinar for you today, and I want to be sure that I give them their flowers. The alarm buzzes in the early morning and the sun isn't even up yet.
I get up, get dressed, feed the kids, drive to work, and I'm there in the office, in the chair, in front of my computer. But there's a cloud above my head. I can hear voices of people talking around me. I smile mechanically, when asked how I'm doing and say I'm fine. But I'm really not. I'm worried about my kids. I'm worried about having enough food for them.
I'm worried about getting to and from daycare with construction traffic, and I'm just exhausted. I've been trying to put on a happy face since my youngest daughter was born. And I just can't. That's an excerpt from put on a happy face, a personal reflection of grief and loss in the workplace, written by Holly Koppel and the scholarly kitchen and seemed appropriate to open today's webinar with those words.
Normalizing conversations around mental health helps in reducing the stigma often associated with mental health issues. It's a step towards increasing awareness and promoting and promoting mental being. It's a step towards a supportive space rooted in empathy and compassion that can bring out the best in each of us and allows us to amplify our productivity and performance.
At SSPs 20, FY23 annual meeting, I stressed the importance of mental health in our industry. A childhood friend of mine had recently lost his brother and son within six months of each other, both to complete its suicide. I thought about my own struggles with post-traumatic stress that originated from being held hostage with a gun pressed to the back of my head, and how even to this very day, innocent moments can remind me of that trauma.
I realized that mental health is not a topic that we usually discuss in our industry events. In our professional lives. We tend to hide the vulnerable pieces of ourselves so that the shiny parts remain visible. The reality is that 84% of employees reported that at least one workplace factor had a negative impact on their mental health.
Many employees who left their jobs during the Great resignation cited a strain on their mental health or lack of support from their employers as a reason for doing so. Nearly 1 billion people worldwide experienced some form of mental health condition, according to the World Health Organization. Rates of already common conditions such as depression and anxiety went up by more than 25% in the first year of the pandemic.
In the United States alone, 50 million adults experience at least one mental illness, and 55% of adults with mental illness have not received any treatment. More than 12 million adults have reported serious thoughts of suicide. That number doubles for adults who identify as multiple races. Aside from those numbers, I can close my eyes and picture the countless amount of family members and friends who say they're fine every time I ask how they're doing.
Maybe they're really not. As I approached my term as president, I thought about the people that make up our industry. I wanted you, our industry professionals, to be reassured that if you or someone close to you are among those numbers, you are not alone and that there is support. I convened a very special task force of past presidents to brainstorm how we can and should support our members.
The call to action was met with overwhelming support. Now I ask one question. How can demonstrate support for members that are struggling with mental health challenges. We can't be all things to all people. And generally speaking, we're not psychologists or psychiatrists. We're concerned members of an extremely talented, brilliant, creative and compassionate community of scholarly publishers.
The 13 member task force approached the question with respect and integrity, and we considered everything that we felt would provide the warmest embrace to friends and colleagues. The task force came up with nearly 30 ideas, which were organized into five strategic initiatives. These initiatives which were presented to the SSP board in October, included posts in the scholarly kitchen. Freely available webinars.
A member survey dedicated to mental health questions. A resource hub. And an affinity group. I'm proud to say that we made progress on two of these initiatives already. Scali kitchen has featured seven articles related to mental health topics, with topics that include practical tips for publishers, the impact of stereotypes on mental health, disability and neurodivergence grief and loss and racial battle fatigue.
The authors have come from all areas of our community, including our leaders, veterans, seasoned professionals, early career student members and organizational members. In November, we launched the mental health awareness Mondays in the scali kitchen. This webinar, as Bill mentioned, is the first of three freely available webinars being organized by members of our community that are scheduled for 2024.
I'd like to Thank David Crotty, head chef of The Scarlet kitchen, for his support. Now We are planning to launch a member survey later this year. The results will inform how we approach the development of a resource hub and be used to define the objectives in establishing an affinity group. I want to sincerely Thank each and every person that confided in me in private and in public that shared their stories and their support.
That came forward in the call to action that let me know that they are ready to be called on to serve. I hold each conversation close to my heart and they remind me why this work is so important. We are here today, tomorrow, and always for you. And at this time, it's my pleasure to introduce our first presenter, Lili Garcia Walton is Chief People officer and general counsel of silverchair, where she architects the company's people strategy for more than 20 years.
Lili has successfully led technology, education, media and professional services organizations through transformative change by preserving strong culture, operational excellence and a sense of mission. Lili is passionate about maximizing human potential, and she proudly serves on the boards for computers for kids and Bryant and Stratton college. Lili is an employment attorney and a certified senior professional in human resources.
She has a BA from Stetson University and a law degree from the University of Virginia. Lili is a resident of Nelson county, Virginia, where she shares a cottage in the woods with her husband, two boys, three rescue cats and a Yorkie poo. There will be time, as Bill mentioned at the end of the presentation, for questions. And once again, want to remind you to please post your questions in the Q&A box and we'll answer as many as we possibly can after the last presenters.
But right now, please join me in welcoming Lili Garcia Walton. Hi, everybody. I feel deeply honored to be joining today. I want to make sure I'm displaying the correct screen.
And I think now I am. So if somebody could give me a verbal signal, if I'm not, I would appreciate that. There's just so much to say on this subject, and I want to acknowledge there's no way I or anybody else is going to be able to cover it all today. What I'm instead hoping to do in the position that I occupy in the series is just to set the table for some thoughtful reflection on where this community should be focusing and relatedly, what its commitments and calls to action might be.
I enter the conversation, as my bio might suggest, from the perspective of a practitioner. I'm an employment lawyer turned HR leader, and I've witnessed in my own lifetime a significant evolution of attitudes and behaviors toward mental health in the workplace. I also enter this conversation as a human being who's personally experienced the great difference that an inclusive and informed perspective on mental health can make in the workplace.
And before I turn the conversation over to my co-panelists from the Center for workplace mental health who will be talking substantively about things that employers can do, what I'd like to do is level set on where we are historically and walk us through the evolution of US employer attitudes in particular toward well-being in the workplace. And I'll share some of the investments my own organization, silverchair, is making in the well-being of its people and closed with just a few practical tips for leaders of people seeking to actively promote a workplace that supports mental well-being.
This is I am no historian and this is an abbreviated timeline, but I'm going to cover some of the milestones that brought us to this point in time where a webinar such as this one could have a high degree of relevancy. The concept of work life balance really started to emerge in the 1970s. But the initial emphasis by employers was on the importance of physical health and substance abuse prevention and treatment programs.
There were some important, important legislative advances during that time, including the Employee Retirement Income Security Act or erisa, which really focused on protecting retirement benefits. But it also set some minimum standards for employer paid health insurance benefits. Late in the 70s. Employee assistance programs began to gain some traction and some popularity.
Again, initially focusing on substance abuse and gradually expanding over time to include mental health services. In the 1980s. Those who lived through it will recall this very well. There was a shift from long term hospitalization for mental illness to community based mental health, which brought some mixed results. During this time, we as a society also confronted the HIV and AIDS pandemic, and that actually brought a lot of additional attention to the mental health impact of illness.
There was a significant amount of advocacy in the 1980s for the Americans with Disabilities Act. What eventually became that law, which which is what we saw in the 1990s. 1990 is when that law was passed, and it was a significant milestone prohibiting discrimination based on disabilities and requiring employers to provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with a disability.
And this included mental health conditions. So that was a significant milestone in public health policy in the 1990s and 1993. Specifically, we also passed the Family and Medical Leave Act. So it's hard to wrap our minds now around the fact that there actually used to be no protection whatsoever for people taking leave from the workplace for things like mental illness and it, including maternity leave.
My mother had to go back to work the day after she gave birth to me, and my siblings. So this was a very important milestone in terms of societal and public policy attitudes toward mental health issues. In the late 90s, we really saw a growing recognition of the impact of stress on employee health and productivity. So the angle then really was it's good for business to pay attention to how people are doing rather than approaching it from a holistic and human centered perspectives.
But regardless, employers at that time, began to offer things like stress management programs and workshops and recognition that there could be some benefit to doing this with the advent of the technology boom and the strengthening tech sector, the big tech behemoths really set a new standard in the early 2000 for workplace well-being, offering a lot of related perks and recognizing that there really was a discernible link between the well-being of employees and the capacity for creativity and innovation.
This emphasis on mental health awareness grew in the mid 2000 and the concept of offering mental health days and things like stress management and resilience training really came into being. And there was an important and little recognized law passed in 2008 called the mental health parity, addiction parity and Addiction Equity act, which required insurance plans to provide the same level of benefits for mental health and substance use treatment and services as they do for medical and surgical care that eventually was amended when the Affordable Care Care Act was passed.
But that was an important step in the direction of ensuring parity for mental health coverage. In the late 2000, during the Great Recession. A lot of employers then started to claw back those being initiatives. Its being initiatives and training programmes, in my experience, are some of the first programs to be cut during difficult economic times. But I will say that the stress of the economic downturn continued to shine a light on the need for more attention to mental health support in the workplace.
The ADR was also passed in 2008. This was a significant expansion of the Americans with Disabilities act, which is important in that it essentially set aside the question of whether somebody had a disability. The explicit intent of this Amendment to the law was to make it much easier to establish a disability existed. And in shifting away from that standard of proof to a focus on whether there was discrimination or appropriate accommodation in the workplace.
This was a significant win for employees struggling with mental health and wellness in the workplace. In the 20 tens, there was continued destigmatisation about mental health issues and a lot of digital innovation in the space. The Affordable Care Act significantly expanded mental health coverage. There are some exceptions for self-insured and grandfathered plans, but it basically required mental health to be included in essential health benefits.
So we may have forgotten all that by now, but that was an important win for the cause of mental well being. In the mid 20, tens, companies, especially technology companies, started to offer far more flexible work arrangements. Telecommuting options. Hybrid work wasn't just a thing of the pandemic. It predated the pandemic. And it was something that had emerged in recognition of the fact that people needed to have more balance in their lives.
There was a significant shift toward de-stigmatization of mental health at work in the late tens, and in 2019. Significantly, the World Health Organization officially recognized burnout as an occupational hazard. And this led to a lot of employers considering more strategies to prevent burnout and promote mental well-being in 2012, this is there are many organizations in a similar space, but that is when the call map was launched, which, as I'll share in a moment, is one of the benefits that we offer are silver champions.
But there during that time, there was a proliferation of mental health startups, including headspace in 2010 that were really focused on bringing mental health benefits to people in a mobile way and creating far more accessibility. And then here we are in the 2020s as a result of the pandemic. There was a very rapid shift to relax regulations that might have made it more difficult for people to access telehealth.
So this vast proliferation that we see now in the accessibility of remote mental health benefits was in part a result of the forcing mechanism of the pandemic. And as you know, we're living this now right. As the pandemic continued, many organizations, including in our industry, adopted permanently adopted flexible work policies, some of which, as we know, are still under debate.
And still haven't completely landed. There has been an increasing emphasis on this idea of mental health days that emerged in 2020 and paid time off reserves specifically for mental health. So the recognition that it's important for employers not to wait until people are sick to offer mental health support, but rather offering some flexibility to let people take the time they need to be well, rather than to wait until they're ill to ask for help.
And there's employers in general are just a lot more open now to discussions about mental health. And it's become acceptable for people to share their mental health challenges with their colleagues and their supervisors. And initiatives such as mindfulness training and being workshops are more common than they have ever been. So we are we're well positioned to solidify and to continue this conversation, and I'm glad to be here having it with you.
In terms of Silverchair's response, we could always do more, but it was helpful for me to sit down and think about a roundup of the sorts of initiatives that we have in place that not only address mental health concerns when they arise, but really create the conditions for people to be well, one category that I'm calling social support is just the routines and norms that we've adopted culturally that support and promote mental well being.
A big one that we recently rolled out is focus Fridays, which basically means our default is not to have meetings on Fridays. We reserve Fridays for heads down, work for, for creative work, for innovation, whatever it is that you might need to work on that requires focus. That's the day to do it. And we encourage people to shift their meetings to the other four days of the week.
Obviously, sometimes things come up and we still have to meet, but certainly it's a big no no at Silverchair to have recurring Friday meetings. And you need to ask hat in hand before you calendar a meeting with a colleague on Fridays for a very long time. We've also had a routine called State of mind, where whenever we have a group meeting, we go around the table and everybody rates their state of mind.
On a scale of negative 3 to positive three, I won't get into all the definitions, but there's an internal rubric and everybody knows based upon what you say, what headspace you're in, and if somebody and we also know one another, we know one another's baseline. So some people are baseline zero, some one, some two. If somebody is off of their baseline, then whoever is facilitating the meeting will usually pause to ask if there's anything that we can do to support.
We have a responsible PTO policy, just a great deal of flexibility in the amount of time people can take and when. And that also includes the concept of mental health days. You really it's very culturally normative at Silverchair for people just to say I need a mental Health Day and there. There is nobody will question that. We also offer, you know, the typical leave policies that other employers offer.
An important distinction is Silverchair does offer paid fmla, which is not widely available. So this is separate from the PTO that people get. There is a designated bucket of four weeks of FMLA that you have access to if you have a qualifying condition and we have employer paid short term disability. I've worked in organizations where short term disability was optional and it meant that employees would try to conserve cash no matter how cheap it was.
And when the time came that they needed it, it wouldn't be there for them. But we offer that as an employer paid benefit. We also have on demand services that people can access. We have an employee assistance program. As I mentioned, everybody at Silverchair has access to the call map, which is mental being and meditation app. And we also have a concierge service that will guide people in navigating all sorts of health issues, including mental health issues, understanding diagnoses, calendaring appointments, determining what is covered.
It's called health advocate. I strongly recommend that to any HR practitioners on the call. And then finally, we just have a collection of what I'm calling specialized benefits. I think the trend and what we're seeing in the feedback that we get from our people is toward trying to offer benefits that people can customize as much as possible to their needs. So one of the things that we offer as an example is we call it It's called a lifestyle spending account.
And what it essentially offers is reimbursement up to $2,500 for medically necessary travel. So if you have to go anywhere for any sort of care, that will be covered for you, no questions asked. And we recently instituted the fringe platform where we just deposit money into somebody's account every month and they have access to hundreds of different types of vendors for any sort of benefit they might need, like last minute childcare, gym memberships, whatever it might be, it's available to you.
And these are just some of the things that we offer in support of mental health. I really think what's most significant is the attitude of our people leaders when in our organizational health survey that index, the relationship between the individual and their direct manager scores more highly than any other. And that really shows up in the way that our people, leaders are able to navigate these sorts of issues.
So, you know, before I turn the conversation over to my co-panelists, I want to leave you with just a few of these thoughts. First of all, understanding the options. One of the things our leaders do very well is just really understanding what we offer and being ready to share those options with the people who work on their teams as issues arise. And if they don't know the options, they will reach out to me so they can share that information directly.
I don't just get people passed along to me. I get a really strong sense that our leaders are hands on and making sure that they're able to be the compassionate face of our organization. And they're also really good at spotting the issues, just identifying when somebody might need more support than they can offer, whether it's actual fmla, leave, an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
That's another just very important responsibility that people, leaders need to take on in an organization that's truly committed to mental well being. We also analyze any sort of performance or conduct problems holistically. So we don't just assume that it's an upskilling issue or somebody has a negative attitude or is unwilling to perform. It could be something else, right.
So we get really curious about the causes of any performance concerns that we see arising in the workplace. And it's often in the context of that issue analysis that the need for accommodations or other support emerges. And then finally, it comes down to adopting the right mindset. And I get very passionate about this next bullet point. Taking care of people and taking care of business are not incompatible. In fact, taking care of people is taking care of business.
Nothing happens without people. And that is the approach that we take here. We adopt explicitly a servant leadership philosophy, and that is the disposition with which every one of our people leaders approaches their obligations. They are also really strong advocates for what is needed. So a lot of the evolution that we've seen in Silverchair's benefits over the last few years is a result of strong advocacy by our leaders.
Sometimes people in individual contributor positions don't feel as comfortable raising their hands and challenging what it is the organization is doing. But our people leaders may feel more comfortable doing that, and they're very vocal advocates for the people on their teams. And then finally and this is something that I continue to work on myself, it's really about leading by example. So modeling self care and self compassion in the way that you enter your role in the organization.
There is there's nothing more powerful in terms of setting the conditions for other people to feel comfortable taking advantage of the flexibility that's available to them. Infuriatingly if somebody here asks me how I'm doing, I will actually tell them how I am doing. And I do that very deliberately, not because it's just because it's an act of self care, but because I know when I do that I'm sending very strong signals into the organization that it's entirely OK for everybody else to do that as well.
That's the kind of workplace that we want to foster. And it really begins with how you show up as a leader. So that's what I have for you today. Thank you very much again, for. For the opportunity to be here and to inaugurate this incredibly important conversation. And I'd be delighted to turn the mic back over to Randi. All right.
Thank you, Lily. Again, for everyone here, please post questions that you may have in the Q&A box. Lily just gave us a lot of really important and valuable information, and we hope that there's questions at this time. I'd like to welcome our next presenter who represents the Center for workplace mental health at the American Psychiatric association, and magellan, who is the associate director for the Center of workplace mental health, where she develops innovative, high impact web based educational content and resources for employers to advance workplace mental health.
Emma builds external relationships with corporate leaders and produces the center's monthly mental health works publication. Prior to her current role, Ms. Jillian was the program manager for the American Psychiatric Association's transforming clinical practice initiative, support and alignment network grant awarded by CMS. Emma, the floor is all yours. Thank you, Randy.
Thank you so much, everyone, for being here today. As Randy mentioned, I am Emma Jellin. I'm the Associate director for the Center for workplace mental health at the American Psychiatric Association foundation. It is a mouthful. I know. Be grateful you're not me, but I want to talk a little bit about the center.
And what we do. Just briefly, we provide tips, tricks, tools, trainings largely for employers. So that they can focus on the mental health and well being of their employees and their families. We work with employers big and small across industries, and we really focus in on workplace initiatives, workplace mental health initiatives. In the areas of global awareness of mental health.
We focus on creating mentally healthy cultures and we focus on increasing access to mental health care for those who need it, right. I'm so grateful to be following Lily's presentation because we work with the lilies of the world, right. We work with the people who are focusing on the mental health and well being benefits and initiatives for their workforce. And I loved all of the slides because what we always say is leadership sets the culture, right.
Anything gets wings, any initiative, any program has wings if it has leadership support. So, lily, everything you outlined. I'm so grateful for Silverchair's commitment to the mental health and well-being of your workforce. It's really important, obviously. But I don't think all of you are the lilies of your organization. And so the way I've kind of structured what I've, I'm going to talk about today is really focusing in on awareness, focusing in on prevalence and the impact of mental health concerns on the workplace, and talking a little bit about where to go when you need to access what you need to access.
So I also, before I get started, want to mention that I'm joined here today by my colleague Shayla Geraghty, who is the heart and soul of the Center for workplace mental health. And she will be in the chat. She will be in the Q&A. She'll be dropping links and resources. But she really is all that the center is. So I want to make sure that you guys know that if you're reaching out.
Before we get started, I want to know if you could join this Poll Everywhere link, or you can send a text to the number at the top, I want to know what you're hoping to learn from today's session, just so I can tailor and target a few of the elements. And if I don't cover them, hopefully be able to identify them in the Q&A or we can have a follow up session. I know this is going to be a series.
I want to make sure that we're covering what you want to in terms of workplace mental health or employee mental health, whatever you want to cover. I want to make sure we're figuring that out. So if you could take a second and join the poll at the top of the screen. And I believe Shayla is going to put the poll information or the link in the chat.
I'm glad you're interested in the topic. OK Other organizations. Yeah I will mention our website is workplace mental health.org and on our website. The front door to our work as we like to say, we have so many case studies of organizations who are doing mental health and well-being for their employees.
Really well. Support your team. Yes, absolutely. During the pandemic, I think that everyone who acts as a manager or a people leader. Your role shifted your position description shifted other duties as assigned. You became the supporter of the mental health and well-being of your team.
We created. Notice talk act at work, which is a mental health training that supports people managers to notice potential concerns, talk to the person they're concerned about and act by connecting them with services and support. So, yes, see what you can improve. Tips for how to talk to your manager about your mental health. That's tricky.
Manage your own mental health. Perfect prioritize with. Yes Yes. OK sorry. Sorry, everyone. So this is great. This is really going to help me set the tone. I'm really grateful. Thank you so much for providing your insights and your feedback.
I hope if we don't cover it today, we will at another date and time or in the Q&A. So the world is changing and mental health and well being are top priorities. And so before the pandemic, workplace mental health and the mental health of employees was abuzz. It was becoming a priority. Employers were recognizing the Roi that absenteeism, presenteeism performance productivity were having on their bottom lines.
But then COVID happened, right. And the pandemic happened and everyone's mental health was severely impacted. Isolation, loneliness, everything. Political and social injustice, a recession. Our workforce and their mental health of our workforce has been hit really, really hard. At the foundation, we like to say there is no health without mental health.
We all have it right. And in fact, 20% or one in five US adults have mental health conditions. Unfortunately, less than 50% receive the mental health services and supports they need when they need it. And that to me, that number is staggering. And honestly, it's probably higher than that. I'm not sure how many of this. Maybe none in fact.
But during the pandemic and even until very recently, the CDC was conducting weekly Household Pulse surveys tracking the number of Americans who were experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety throughout the pandemic, and the rates at which people were experiencing these symptoms were astral comical. We were seeing tripling and quadrupling of people experiencing these symptoms.
And unfortunately, surveys showed and continue to show those high rates and especially for our young professionals, our young leaders, our future leaders. Their rates, you can see on the screen are higher than the rest. And that is really, really important to recognize because when we're talking about the great resignation, as Lily already mentioned, or maybe it was randy, when we're talking about the great resignation, these Gen Z folks, these young professionals, they largely led the charge.
And what we learned from all of that is that money does not talk like it used to. And culture matters. And these young professionals and these people who have left their organizations, they're leaving to find a better culture and a better culture exists at an employer of choice. And so when employers are focusing in on their benefits, on their recruitment, on their retention, they're focusing in on workplace mental health initiatives.
And they're not just checking the box on the EAP anymore, right. They're really looking for services and supports and benefits that are a wrap around for their employee. And we're really, really grateful. I know we already I believe Randy again or Lily talked about burnout, right. I think it was lily, right.
The WHO officially defined it. And burnout. This is the chronic workplace stress that is not managed. And I don't know about you. And feel free to use some emojis. But, you know, these surveys show like, have you experienced burnout in the last six months. In the last year. And I am here to say I've experienced burnout in the last three hours.
Like this is something that is impacting the workforce across the board. High percentages, right. And it's categorized by three things exhaustion, you know, are you is your battery drained? Do you feel like your tank is empty. Are you negative and cynical towards work, co-workers or others in your life. And are you feeling ineffective at work.
Reduced effectiveness or, or do you have a reduced ability to perform your work. And I'm mentioning this not because burnout is a mental health condition. It is not, but because the excessive stress that goes unmanaged that comes from that burnout can lead to and/or exacerbate mental health conditions like depression, like anxiety, like substance use disorder.
And we work with a number of organizations about reducing or eliminating burnout within their workforce. There are six key areas that you can address that really have a large impact. I'm not going to talk about those today. But I am going to mention that reducing burnout is a partnership between the employer and the employee, right. We like to say it's a 70/30 split with 70% being on the employer to fix the culture that is leading to burnout.
But that 30% means you need to take care of yourself. You need to figure out what's right for you in your workplace, what can you control to reduce that burnout. How can you protect your mental health and well-being when you're dealing or experiencing burnout. Connecting with support. Your look at your organization's support benefits. That could be therapy through your or another clinical provider.
Take time off. I know it's hard. I know Lily mentioned mental health days. Not every organization has those, but use your vacation time. I know that feels so disgusting to say. Use your vacation time to take care of you. Use a sick day to take care of you. Make sure you're setting time aside so you can reset and recharge.
Address your sleep issues if they exist. I know when I'm burned out and I am just exhausted. I can't sleep. And that is just so counterintuitive. And sleep hygiene is so important. Make those healthy changes. I know. Reduce or eliminate factors that are contributing to excessive levels of stress.
Can we do that. I don't know. But if it means stopping your Workday at 530, you know, not sending any more emails, that's what it means. And then focusing on self-care, right. That's really important and not easy to do. A year or so ago, we at the center through our right direction initiative, which is an initiative to raise depression awareness in the workplace.
And we through this initiative, we provide resources and tools for both employers and individuals And through the right direction initiative, we conducted a focus group of young professionals with lived experience with depression. And, you know, we asked them what were some tools or resources that you wished were available when you were navigating your depression diagnosis in the workplace.
And the resounding number of them said they wish they know what self-care is in concept, but they needed tools to utilize to take care of their own, to engage in self-care. So we created this self-care toolkit that includes elements like meditation, journal exercises, how to set healthy boundaries, you know, how do you say a kind no emotional intelligence and awareness.
How are you recognizing and labeling your emotions, tools around, managing stress and raising resiliency, you know, bending, not breaking. That's what we say. Creating your own self-care plan and tools. These are all really critical things that you can do to take care of yourself, to engage in self-care.
I think we all know that mental health impacts the workplace, right. If you are dealing with a mental health concern or a condition or a burnout and you are coming to work. You show up with all of your self at work, whether that's whole and well or not, you are showing up with your mental health concern or challenge in the workplace and that is going to impact your performance, your productivity.
And if we're talking about the workplace and the employer. This really does impact retention, retention, attendance, you know, their bottom line, it impacts the organizational culture, your ability to recruit. If people hear that you know, your workplace is not a mentally healthy culture, they're likely not going to want to join your workplace, right.
So these are all ways and things to think about when we're thinking about how it actually impacts you and your workforce. And I'm just putting this up there to say internal, external and community resources do exist. If you, you know, are dealing with a mental health challenge or concern or if you have a colleague who is dealing with a mental health challenge or concern.
You know, Lily mentioned spotting the issue. I don't love the word issue or. A disorder. We don't use those when we talk about it. But being able to recognize a potential mental health concern, what that might look like, you know, in behavior, appearance, mood and thinking, those are the four ways you can capture that. We don't want you to diagnose, but recognizing the signs isn't hard.
And you know what we've heard when we were rolling out our manager training on mental health is that it's not hard to recognize the signs of someone experiencing a mental health concern. It is hard to talk with them about it, and I don't know how to connect them with the appropriate services and support. So we don't want you to diagnose, but we do want you to recognize the signs.
And it is always helpful when employers share a large list or have a repository or a centralized location of all their mental health and wellbeing, benefits and tools and resources for their employees and their families. So that if someone does need to share those with someone who's struggling, they can and it's in one place. And so these right here are what we often refer people to as they're building this compendium. But just for your own input and as you're assessing your organization's own resources.
So if you're again, if you're looking for those resources, do you know about your own mental health and well being benefits. Does your organization OFR supplemental mental health benefits. I calm is one that a lot of people utilize. I think that was something that was discussed. Has your organization launched a mental health and well-being initiative.
I mean, do you do education on mental health. Do you lunch. And learns? Do you does your organization provide mental health training. Do you have an eap? Are all of these shared together. What is your organization doing to reduce stigma. Does your organization promote stress management and resiliency.
Does your organization provide a list of community organizations or resources in the mental health space. I listed some previously, so thinking about this holistically, what do they offer. How can you utilize. And the last thing I'm going to mention is that we spend so much time at work, right. Largely eight hours a day, five days a week, often more.
Your employer is an incredible resource. Either you as an employer or your employer is an incredible resource to get you connected to care and to create a mentally healthy workplace while you're there. And we know that people who connect with care are more engaged in their work. They're more productive for their organization. They miss fewer work days, right. They perform well at high levels and they really reach their potential.
So connecting to care, utilizing your employers resources to connect, to care if and when you need it for a mental health concern is incredibly important. And as an employer offering those benefits that align with the needs of your employees, the mental health and well being needs of your employees is also critically important. So I'm going to stop there. Please stay in touch.
If again, if I didn't cover something you want to discuss, I'm happy to connect via email. Visit our website, happy to take questions in the Q&A. But really, really, truly creating a mentally healthy workplace for all is the aim and the goal of what we do. And we're here to help you if you need help. So great. Thank you, Emma.
There is a question in the Q&A and I think it's directed towards Lily. Do the check ins ever backfire? I would be nervous about sharing my mental state with peers and especially supervisors, for fear of it being used against me. My answer might surprise you, but if you don't feel psychologically safe, you shouldn't share personal information.
Your workplace like, really. And I saw I mean, I think it was Shayla who answered as well. If you trust your HR department, if you feel that there is an internal resource you can go to, certainly take advantage. But I'm not asking anybody here to stick their neck out. But except if you're a leader, if you're a leader in your organization, it is your obligation to push the envelope and to self-identify and do everything within your comfort zone to help to drive the kind of culture that you want to create.
Yeah, we get this question all the time, by the way. And lily, that. That was beautiful, right. Like, you have to know your audience. If you don't feel safe, don't share. But look for someone to ask or share with. And again, Shayla mentioned, it is a great example. I think people often feel like HR works for their boss and largely they are there to help you and support you and help you navigate any benefits that you need to utilize for your own mental health and well-being.
Great are there any other questions before I turn it back over to Bill. No All right. Well, I think we're about at time, so I will personally Thank Emma and Lily for today's presentation. I'll turn it back over to Bill to wrap up our session.
Great Thanks a lot, randy, and Thanks to everybody for participating. This was a really good attendance and an engaged group of attendees. I will have to say that was really quite fantastic to see how engaged you all were. Also, of course, Thanks so much to our two speakers who are just fantastic. I had a feeling this was going to be a great webinar, but man, I'm sure glad we recorded it.
This is just really, really valuable. There's a QR code. I'm not seeing it right now. But the. Maybe Susan can speak up or put something in the chat about there's this QR code. So please scan that and give us some feedback. We particularly value this feedback.
I know people always say that, but we're putting on more of these webinars. So please, more feedback is really helpful to us as we go through this for the rest of the year. And then finally, just a reminder to save the date for the annual meeting, which is in Boston in May. May 29 to 31. We're very soon.
Registrations going to open. So anyway, as, and as I mentioned earlier on at the beginning that this webinar was recorded, so all of you will be sent a link, all the registrants will be sent a link to the recording when it's posted on the website. So if anybody else has anything to add, if not, Thank you again for participating and hope we can see you next time.
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