Anticipating an increased demand for mental health services as COVID-19 remains unresolved, all while clients and their children return to work and school, Employee and Family Assistance Program (EFAP) provider and technology-enabled human resources services provider, Morneau Shepell Inc. announced August 24 that it is expanding its mental health clinical network capacity by 25 per cent.

“As conversations about reopening economies, workplaces and children returning to school intensify, the scale and scope of mental health support must change as well,” the company said in a statement announcing the changes.

They add that Morneau Shepell Mental Health Index scores “reflect a population whose mental health is comparable to that of the most distressed one per cent of Canadians prior to the pandemic.”

The company says it is expanding its clinical capacity immediately to provide mental health support to those in need. “This growth is in anticipation of an increase in outreach for pandemic-related concerns, such as anxieties about children returning to school, returning to work and compounding stress about an uncertain and distant resolution to COVID-19.”