Since the pandemic was declared in March 2020, a series of COVID-19 waves and variants has heightened people’s sense of anxiety. In the corporate world, managers are being hit particularly hard.
Although the anxiety is not yet driving its group long-term disability claims upward, Beneva is monitoring the situation. “In our private business groups, we have not seen significant growth in long-term disability incidence in the last few quarters. We remain vigilant, because what we are hearing around mental health leads us to believe that there could be impacts at the disability level,” Brigitte Marcoux told Insurance Portal.
As National Director, Best Practices, Health Support Solutions, Prevention, Workplace Attendance and Organizational Health, Marcoux reports to Amélie Meilleur, Vice-President of Workplace Attendance and Wellness at Beneva. Brigitte Marcoux points out that the pandemic has amplified mental health problems at all levels of organizations.
Four times more anxious
Marcoux cites research findings that are cause for concern, including the results of the study Anxiety and depression in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic, published in February 2021 in the journal Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne, a publication of the Canadian Psychological Association.
The study found that the number of people who reported high to extremely high anxiety quadrupled during the pandemic, from 5 per cent to 20 per cent. In addition, one-third of Canadians with anxiety and depression reported increased use of alcohol and cannabis during the pandemic.
“Requests from our plan sponsors for organizational health support have soared by 150 per cent since April 2020, for the mental health component alone,” Marcoux points out. She says her team receives requests every week from organizations that want to help their managers detect the warning signs of psychological distress in employees and intervene appropriately.
In addition, executives who are managing a return to the office in hybrid mode are facing mounting pressure. Marcoux shared a study conducted by LifeWorks in spring 2021, in partnership with Deloitte Canada and CHR020, a group of human resources executives. Well-being and resilience in senior leaders: A risk to post-pandemic recovery finds that 82 per cent of senior leaders are experiencing exhaustion indicative of burnout risk.
The study, which surveyed 1,158 senior leaders from 11 large organizations, including Deloitte and Bell Canada, also reports that the stigma about mental health issues is a barrier to seeking help. For example, 55 per cent of respondents were concerned about their career opportunities being limited if their employer was aware they had a mental health issue. In addition, 41 per cent said they would find it difficult to acknowledge that they have a mental health problem.
A complicated return
On November 16, Canada Life published a study that highlights the difficulties managers face. Conducted in collaboration with Mental Health Research Canada, the study found that 43 per cent of managers surveyed are finding their work more difficult because of the pandemic. Only 4 per cent view it as less difficult at this time.
“Many leaders are facing challenges they've never had to deal with before,” Mary Ann Baynton, Director of Collaboration and Strategy, Workplace Strategies for Mental Health, at Canada Life says in the media release on the survey results.
She adds that some employees who have been working on-site since the pandemic began, or who are returning to the company's premises after working from home for a long time, are concerned about catching the virus. “The fear of COVID-19 exposure can bring unique concerns to the workplace – concerns that leaders may not have had to deal with before now,” she explains.
Leaders also reported that certain areas were more challenging when supporting employees, such as handling workers’ emotional reactions. Baynton is not surprised by this finding, “This isn't an area where all have adequate training or resources that are easy to access.”
Glaring lack of support
A survey released by Sun Life Canada in October 2021 found that one in 10 Canadians have left or considered leaving their jobs due to a lack of mental health support. The survey is based on an Ipsos poll doneon a sample of 1,500 Canadians aged 18 and over, between August 13 and 20, 2021.
The survey also found that 62 per cent of Canadian workers identified emotional, mental and physical fatigue as the top issue. In addition, more than half of Canadians were still struggling with mental health issues 18 months into the pandemic. “Yet employees are still not getting the support they need at work,” says Jacques Goulet, President of Sun Life Canada, in the media release presenting the survey results.
Goulet plans to continue to hold his CEO and C-suite forum each year to keep this crisis on the front burner. “If there was ever a time for Canadian leaders to renew their organization's vision and approach to employee mental health, it's now,” he comments.
University pitches in
Brigitte Marcoux goes on to cite the anxiety study published in Canadian Psychology: “Canadians with depression and anxiety also claim that the quantity and quality of mental health support systems has decreased.”
Mental health resources and tools for employee intervention are sorely lacking. “We believe that our insureds and our organizations need tools for self-management of anxiety. That's why we decided to fund the Chair,” she says, referring to the Relief Research Chair in Mental Health, Self-Management and Work, powered by Beneva.
The Chair was created in June 2021 by the Faculty of Social Sciences of Université Laval, which received two contributions of $1 million each. One comes from Beneva and the other from Relief, a national mental health organization specializing in self-management of anxiety, depression and bipolar disorders. Each of the two contributions covers a period of five years.
Eric Trudel, Senior Vice President and Lead, Group Insurance at Beneva, explained to Insurance Portal the rationale behind the “powered by Beneva” reference in the Chair’s name. “We wanted to make the distinction because our role in this chair is not just philanthropic. Theory will be combined with practice.”
For example, Trudel says he would like to see UniversitéLaval conduct research applied to the real needs of its group insurance clients, with the goal of supporting plan sponsors and their employees. “We also want the Chair to be able to develop a psychological health self-management application,” he adds.
The self-management app is now in development, Trudel told Insurance Portal on Dec. 6 in an email exchange, in which he wrote that this work will take place over several months. “The Relief Research Chair in Mental Health Self-Management is targeting several studies for the next five years. The self-management application is one of many research projects aimed at developing tools,” he adds.
Too few tools
Trudel said Beneva plans to offer group plan sponsors the opportunity to contribute to the Chair’s research topics in 2022. He has presented this opportunity to group insurance clients. “We have organized two webinars with the Chair, Simon Coulombe, to present the self-management principles and tools.”
Brigitte Marcoux is playing a pivotal role in the collaboration with the Chair, according to Éric Trudel. “Her team explained to me that self-management is the key, and that this approach does not seem to be as present in the workplace as it should be. There are few tools out there that are designed for managers,” the group insurance lead told Insurance Portal.
Marcoux points out that there is very little documentation on self-management tools for mental health disorders. She believes that the Chair's research will advance actions in this area. “We want to do projects. We would like to have self-management tools to equip our rehabilitation counsellors,” she says.
To address this gap, Relief launched Relief at Work in September 2021. This program offers two options: The Mental Health Advocate membership program; andthe Mental Health Leader certification program. The first is an official commitment by the company or organization's senior management to the well-being of its employees. The second program offers presentations, webinars and training, as well as personalized coaching and tools tailored to executives, managers and employees.
Increase in corporate demand
Appointed Chief Operating Officer of Relief in November 2021, Martin Binette has been actively involved in developing the Relief at Work program. “I've never seen such a buzz around employee mental health and psychological well-being. Organizations are feeling a sense of urgency to do something,” he told Insurance Portal.
Although Relief focused exclusively on the individual market before the creation of Relief at Work, requests from organizations were already coming in. “They were asking us, 'What can you do to help us? Our employees are not doing well!’ Relief at Work aims to meet that need.”
Relief is also noticing growing demand in its traditional activities. “We have seen a 30 per cent increase in requests for help from individuals in the community related to anxiety, depression and bipolar disorders,” Binette adds.
Relief at Work generally targets SMEs with 20 to 1,000 employees. The program is currently being piloted with Beneva, which has approximately 5,000 employees.
The Relief at Work team offers to meet with all members of the organization, “from the president to the part-time employee,” Binette points out. “We work on four pillars: destigmatization, awareness, education—many people don't know how to recognize the symptoms of a mental illness—, and promotion of services already in place. We position ourselves as a complement to employee assistance programs (EAPs), telemedicine or any other service, not a competitor.”
Stigma persists
He outlines the ingredients that will maximize the use of the tools. “Without destigmatization and awareness, the programs that are put in place are doomed to fail,” he says, adding that considerable stigma lingers in organizations.
Binette speaks from experience: It took him 20 years to talk about his condition, out of fear of losing the esteem of his colleagues and family, and even of losing his job, he says. “I've been living with generalized anxiety disorder since I was 19, and I'm now open about it. The statistic that makes my blood run cold is that 60 per cent of people living with a mental health disorder will not seek help for fear of being judged, labelled, or stigmatized, even though help is available for free.” He says the statistic comes from a study by the Canadian Mental Health Association.
The Sun Life Canada survey also confirms that stigma persists in organizations. It finds that 37 per cent of Canadians feel unsafe talking about mental health at work. Within this group, 55 per cent attribute their feelings to lack of trust in their employer. Half say they are embarrassed to talk about it and 40 per cent fear discrimination. In addition, only 22 per cent say their CEO or manager had talked about mental health in the past 12 months.
Prevent and support
Among the best practices she promotes at the national level, Marcoux believes that prevention and support services are key to avoiding long-term disability claims. “These services allow us to act before a member's situation deteriorates, by providing support from the beginning of a short-term disability,” she says.
Beneva also offers a service that assesses the rehabilitation potential of each short-term disability case. Marcoux explains that the insurer handles cases that were opened within the past year. Professionals such as occupational therapists, kinesiologists, nurses and psychologists support insureds in their rehabilitation and return to work. “Support from a health professional can make all the difference,” she says.
Barriers to the employee's return are reported to the team's rehabilitation coordinator. “There are many variables in a disability case. We will try to reduce the risk factors and put in place measures that will promote a healthier work environment,” Marcoux continues.
Are these upstream efforts stemming cases of long-term disability? We will have to measure the results in six months, Marcoux told Insurance Portal in late August 2021. Asked for an update this fall, she had no new data to share.
