“Excuse me, boss. I would like to request next Wednesday off for a mental health checkup.”
If this request sounds a little odd, then you are not alone. However, especially in the workplace, mental health examinations are just as important as physical health checkups, maybe even more so.
The stigmatization of visits to psychotherapist remains alive and well, even in today’s world of greater tolerances for sexual preferences, points of view, and clothing in the workplace.
Rising Concern in the Workplace
An article last year in Forbes reported that 20 percent of employed millennials cited encounters with clinical depression, while 16 percent of older employees reported the same. Often called the silent illness, depression and similar mental-health maladies can affect a company’s bottom line in production and profit.
According to the article, CHG Healthcare stands as one example of a company taking mental health seriously as it pertains to its staff. About half of CHG’s staff consists of millennials, according to the company’s director of talent management.
CHG responded to employees’ demands for mental health support by inviting Marathon Health to set up an on-site clinic at its 1,700-employee campus in Salt Lake City, Utah. Over a six-month period at CHG, a full-time male and female counselor served 75 clients.
Despite CHG’s progressive and proactive response to today’s mental health demands and stress in the workplace, an onsite health staff or facility for mental health treatment can appear to many, including prospective employees, as a troubling and intimidating sight.
Now Introducing the Virtual Treatment Center
Enter less visible, yet highly effective, treatment options such as Talkspace.
A start-up that offers therapy via live video, audio and video message, and chat messaging on handheld and desktop devices, Talkspace acts as an on-campus treatment clinic without even the need for a campus. It offers clients an opportunity to connect with professionally-licensed psychotherapists using an app on their phone or via desktop.
After six years of operating, Talkspace has 1 million users, according to CEO Oren Frank, who co-founded Talkspace with his wife, Roni. Frank points to the number of messages sent and clients served as an indicator of the demand for a less visible way of treating mental illness, but one that continues to battle stereotypes, whether in the workplace or elsewhere.
To bring its mental-health service to the larger platform of corporate human resources, Talkspace recently hired chief medical officer Neil Liebowitz, a former senior medical officer at United Health, an employer-centered provider whose workforce includes more than 86,000 clinical professionals offering services in all 50 states and across the globe.
With a chief medical officer now on board, Talkspace hopes to expand its platform and aspire toward a public offering or IPO, speculates a CNBC article.
In the same article, Liebowitz says he joined Frank’s team because Talkspace offers the mental health field a “new and different” way to increase access to mental health professionals.
He cites Talkspace’s platform as a more affordable way of contacting medical professionals that especially accommodates those in rural settings – people whose trips to qualified providers and clinics can sometimes span hundreds of miles.
Many Yet to Be Reached
A white paper published by Merritt Hawkins reveals that more than 50 percent of people in the United States lack proper access to mental health practitioners in their area.
According to Frank, Talkspace’s business service currently finds that 10 percent of employees covered are opting in for Talkspace’s network of therapists.
According to the article, the affordability and convenience proved to be Talkspace’s biggest draw. The company offers a $49 a week plan for text messaging mental health professionals and a $79 weekly service for talking to a therapist via live online video.
These rates are found by most to be more affordable than in-person visits to offices that require time and expenditures on gas, parking, and the premium-priced, in-person appointment itself that typically run $100-$150 per session.
All About Accessibility
However, the most critical virtue of Talkspace and similar providers of online mental health treatment lies in their ability to access clients in their homes. Geography, especially when it comes to rural clients, often proves to be a barrier to accessing mental health services.
Frank also notes how Talkspace therapists can more accurately gauge some clients’ conditions because the session occurs more spontaneously on the client’s part. A message is sent, and your psychotherapist will respond 1-2 times per day. This differs from brick-and-mortar therapy in that a client must often wait at least several days before discussing whatever challenging issues they face during the week.
The number of visits and communications this online therapy affords the therapist a wider window for assessing client mental health challenges.
If you would like to learn more about how Talkspace helps employees and employers improve their mental health, visit Talkspace’s website.
