Episode 20 – A Check in with Right Direction

Mike Stull (0:09)

Hi everyone, this is Mike Stull and welcome to this month’s episode of the Employers Health HR Benecast, your source for expert commentary and insights on current health benefits related news and strategies. We hope you had a great summer and are getting back into the swing of things. We’re looking forward to the days when we can all get together in person.

But for now, we’ve got a number of great virtual events coming up to keep you informed on the latest developments in employee benefits. We’re excited to bring a virtual edition of Employers Health and Wealth. Employers Health and Wealth Live is a three-part webinar series covering many of your commonly faced employment benefits and retirement plan issues, particularly in this new normal of COVID.

You can register for one or all three of the webinars in the series at employershealthco.com/events. Again, that’s employershealthco.com/events.

And now for today’s guest.

I recently took some time to talk with my colleague, Sean Godar, who serves as co-director of Right Direction. Welcome, Sean. I’m really looking forward to hearing from you and sharing how Right Direction is adapting and addressing both employer and employee needs, especially during these times.

But before we get started, maybe you can share a little bit about yourself as well as the Right Direction initiative.

Sean Godar (1:31)

Thanks for having me on, Mike. I’m assuming you don’t want me to go into my love for West Coast swing dancing today.

Mike Stull (1:38)

I think that’s a future episode.

Sean Godar (1:41)

Perfect. So I started my career in the biological sciences, obtaining my PhD in molecular pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Southern California.

And then I spent the next several years working as a postdoctoral researcher in pharmacology and neuroscience, studying mental health conditions at the universities of Southern California, Kansas and Utah, where I became a research assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology. To be honest, I was a little burned out with academia a few years ago, and I thought I could really have a bigger impact working on the business side of health care. I started work obviously at an Employers Health in 2018 as a director and product evaluation while pursuing a global executive MBA at Duke.

I graduated last December and I currently lead the analytics team at Employers Health as well as serving as the co-director of Right Direction. So I guess that’s enough about me. Let’s talk about Right Direction, which is much more interesting.

Right Direction is a mental health initiative that helps organizations really address mental health in the workplace. In particular, we really focus on providing free, high-impact, and turnkey guidance and resources that help employers raise mental health awareness, reduce stigma, and facilitate help-seeking behaviors. The initiative was created as a collaboration and partnership between Employers Health and the American Psychiatric Association Foundation’s Center for Workplace Mental Health.

Mike Stull (3:09)

Great. Thank you for that intro. So one of the new things with Right Direction is that it has a new look.

Can you tell us more about this rebranding effort, and what can employers expect from the new site? I guess another question that we get all the time, the famous Right Direction bear has gotten a makeover as well. And so one of the questions we get, does the new bear have a new name?

Sean Godar (3:37)

So when I first took over as co-director of Right Direction, my fellow co-director is Darcy Grutadaro from the Center for Workplace Mental Health. When I first took over, Darcy and I did a lot of market research into the initiative.

For example, what was it doing well? What could be improved? And what were we not doing, but we should be doing? And one of the first things we did was really refresh the branding. We wanted to make it more modern and clean. And I think the first thing you’ll notice about our new website is really how bright and warm it feels.

We wanted Right Direction to convey a feeling of inspiration to users and let them know, you’re not alone. Help is available and treatment works. To address the different needs of employers and employees, we really divided the site into two sections, for employers and for you.

And this helps with site navigation, as well as accessibility of resources. I think the biggest change you’ll see with the Right Direction initiative is kind of our change in strategy, where we wanted to go beyond just this awareness of depression and really create guidance, strategies, and resources that are actionable, that employers can easily implement to produce tangible results. We shifted our focus to emphasizing important barriers to treatment.

So access to care, workplace practices and policies, cost of treatment, and also just culture in the workplace in general. We added a lot of new content, including articles on burnout, resiliency, how to talk about mental health at work, which is a really important thing that employers are struggling to discuss with their employees. We also created fact sheets on recognizing signs of mental health condition at work, how to improve your access to care, and factors that negatively impact and contribute to workplace well-being, as well as how managers and staff can actionably address them.

Shifting to the B.E.A.R., we have not yet chosen a name for the B.E.A.R. app, but several organizations have held name the B.E.A.R. contests, and each, I think, has their own name of the B.E.A.R. Maybe in the future, we can have a whole website survey to vote for a name, but as of yet, we have not. It is the unnameable B.E.A.R. We can call them Alpha B.E.A.R.

Mike Stull (5:59)

Well, I appreciate that background and a little bit of insight into the strategy that we’re using to make some positive changes in the Right Direction Initiative. I can say, as someone who was here when we started Right Direction and am fortunately still here, that I think the changes have been very well done, and kudos to you and Darcy for having the foresight and kind of the proactive piece of this to refresh the solution, and I think all the new stuff is great.

Obviously, we find ourselves in a position here where COVID has changed life for many, and can you share a little bit about how Right Direction is working to address the increase in depression, anxiety, and other mental health conditions due to the changes that COVID has brought about, as well as if you’ve seen an uptick in utilization of mental health services or have heard of an uptick in utilization of mental health services among both employers and employees, and I would say the general public altogether.

Sean Godar (7:24)

Sure. First of all, thank you for the kind words on our rebranding efforts.

That really makes me happy that people are appreciating it, and they really do have a positive take on what we’ve done and what we’re trying to accomplish. Turning to COVID, it’s such a crazy year with the pandemic and how hard it’s hit everything from how we deal with each other socially, economically, you know, even at work, and a lot of times people neglect to think about the impact that COVID has really had on the mental health space. In fact, there’s been data, I think, by the government and other different sources, that have indicated that there has been a really dramatic rise in the levels of depression and anxiety.

In fact, data from the government and several other organizations have indicated a dramatic rise in levels of depression and anxiety from COVID. This is especially the case in younger demographics, especially between the ages of 18 and 25, reaching almost 50 percent of depression and anxiety, which is unprecedented. We’ve also been contacted by numerous organizations to talk about their needs and how they can address mental health in the workplace now that COVID has really impacted them, and it really has.

You know, mental health has such a major role in productivity and job satisfaction, in acquiring employees and retaining them, and even customer service. So to address this, we created guidance documents with step-by-step instructions on dealing with COVID, working remotely, and even how to support employees both currently and in the future when they’re reboarding. I think the most important part about all these documents is that they’re evidence-based and they’re free, and they’re also not just articles that talk about it, but they have actionable strategies on what to do and why you should do it.

So that’s the major thing that Right Direction has done.

Mike Stull (9:35)

I find it interesting that we talk about the levels of depression, particularly in the younger demographic of 18 to 25, and for a lot of employers, you know, it’s almost the reverse of caregiving. It’s still caregiving, it’s just instead of caring for an elderly patient or an elderly parent, I should say, it’s about how do you help employees work with, you know, their kids who may be late in high school, may be trying to transition to college, or even transition from college to an empty job market.

And so even though employers may not see these individuals on a daily basis, their employees are dealing with them on a daily basis. And so I think it just emphasizes the need for these types of resources even more. It’s no surprise that most benefits teams are busier than ever, and unfortunately, some are working with smaller than usual teams.

If you’re a benefits professional working on limited resource, what’s the one thing you’d do to better the overall mental health of your colleagues and employees?

Sean Godar (10:52)

That’s a great question, Mike. That’s a question we often get, is what can we do if we don’t have this enormous team of human resource professionals, if we don’t have a million-dollar budget to help our organization with mental health? And you know, Mike, there are a lot of things that organizations can do to address workplace mental health, regardless of resource limitations. I think the first thing is really getting leadership involved.

Organizations often look to leadership for guidance in general, and even more so during crises. Employees may feel alone, embarrassed, shamed, or even scared that any mental health condition that they vocalize could adversely affect their job status and future opportunities. And I think it really falls on the leader’s plate to support their employees and make them feel both environmentally safe, especially with this pandemic, as well as psychologically safe.

You know, being really open and transparent about what they’re thinking during crises, what decisions they’re making. And one of the best things a leader can do is address their organization directly. They can do it through a meeting, if it’s a smaller organization.

If it’s a larger organization, they can do it through an email. And this email can really acknowledge the importance of mental health and self-care. We actually have an email template that groups can use to start this message on our website.

But I think the importance of doing this email and writing this email is it displays compassion towards employees. It normalizes mental health, which helps to reduce stigma. It gets people trying to actively seek help.

And in this, the leader should also ask for the fellow employees to be compassionate and empathetic to others who may be experiencing difficulties, as well as communicate really the organization’s benefits. The next things that organizations can do is set up a monthly or bimonthly email that simply reminds individuals that they’re not alone. Treatment works.

And the organization has available benefits to help. I find that it’s often a struggle for employees to remember every single benefit that they have. And mental health really doesn’t always come to the forefront when they’re onboarding or going through open enrollment.

So it’s important for organizations to really actively remind individuals that, hey, we have you covered. It doesn’t have to be a robust program with necessarily employee assistance programs, but just even providing, here’s your medical provider that you have available. Obviously, it’s important to list these benefits and contact numbers in this communication.

The last thing that organizations can do is really to make sure managers and supervisors are well trained to handle mental health in the workplace. So I don’t mean that they need to diagnose individuals, or they need to take classes. But really what they need to do is to engage individuals in one-on-one meetings.

And at least this should be every quarter, if not more frequently. And these meetings can be used to check in with employees. How are you doing? What can I do for you to help? What challenges are you facing, both at home and at work? Because all of this affects productivity.

Again, it affects job satisfaction and even customer service, as I mentioned before. I think one of the really pertinent things that a manager or supervisor can do is say, how can I help you overcome these challenges? Or what can I do better in my managerial style to help you through this time period? I think that’s really powerful, as it helps with some self-growth. But it also helps you, as a manager, make your employees more successful.

And I actually received some great advice on leadership that you might appreciate. A leader is only successful if everyone below them is successful. And you might appreciate this, Mike, because you were the one who told me this.

So lastly, I just want to say that communication of benefits and access to care are two of the biggest issues for mental health in the workplace. And I already briefly discussed some communication strategies and leadership, but I wanted to touch on access to care. This may or may not be within the budget, but I would definitely recommend organizations to implement telehealth services, including telepsychiatry, and if possible, looking into some behavioral health subsidization, as cost is one of the leading barriers for people to seek treatment.

I think telepsychiatry is really particularly important, because a lot of people are working from home, and a lot of the non-essential practices for healthcare are still a little risky for people, especially if they’re older or they have pre-existing conditions. So, I think those are some of the advice that I would have and strongly recommend.

Mike Stull (15:53)

So, thanks, Sean.

I appreciate the call out to the leadership advice, and certainly something that I’ve believed for a long time. I think that, you know, to help people be successful, mental health certainly comes into play, and people need to know that it’s okay to seek help. I’ve told a number of people my own story around trying to deal with mental health issues on my own for eight years, a lot of anxiety issues, panic attacks, things like that.

And I tried to manage it for myself for eight years and did so pretty decently, but then it just got to the point where I needed additional help, and so not feeling bad about going out and doing that. It’s, you know, not something that I’ve brought on myself. It’s not something that, you know, is created necessarily by anything that I’m doing or not doing.

It’s just the way I’m wired. And so when I began to understand that and began to understand ways to deal with anxiety versus trying to stop it or trying to run away from it or get away from it, when I realized that, hey, this is just part of who I am and I’ve got ways to deal with it and have accepted that, things have gotten much better. I’ve been much more productive in my day-to-day daily life, both at work and at home.

So I just encourage folks who are listening to, you know, have those conversations with, you know, a close friend, a family member. I know when I’ve mentioned my own story, it’s amazing how relieved some people are. They say, wow, you’ve dealt with that? I’ve had the same thing happening for the last, you know, X number of years, and I thought it was just me.

No, it’s not just you. There are a lot of people who deal with the same types of feelings, and some of them last a long time and some of them last a short time, but certainly important to seek help. The team at Right Direction, along with the APA Center for Workplace Mental Health, always has a number of great events and initiatives in the works.

Before we end today, could you share what you’ve got coming up and how employers can get involved?

Sean Godar (18:33)

Sure. Thanks, Mike, and thank you for sharing your story. I think you touched on something that was really important that I want to mention, which is how you can still be extremely successful even if you have a mental health condition or even if you’re actively going through therapy or treatment, and I think a lot of people are scared that a mental health issue will define them, and it doesn’t.

So, thank you for sharing that. So, with that, I’m going to turn to the advertising statement, which is please visit our website at www.rightdirectionforme.com to access all of our materials, including articles, guidance, best practices, and webinars. Everything on the site is free.

We also have upcoming webinars in October, November, and December, so stay tuned as we will be publicizing them on our website. Lastly, Mike, thank you for having me. It has been a real pleasure speaking with you today.

Mike Stull (19:34)

Great. Thank you, Sean. Obviously, Right Direction is near and dear to my heart and so proud of our organization and our team and our partners for their leadership on this important topic.

You see so much about mental health in the workplace out there today, and to think that we started Right Direction back in 2013. So, this is our eighth year working with employers around mental health in the workplace. So, certainly, kudos to the entire team for continuing to advance the cause out in the marketplace and thank you to all of our employers.

This has been the most well-received initiative that we’ve ever done with thousands of employers that have implemented different pieces and parts and components and tools of Right Direction over that time period. And I don’t think back in 2013 that anyone would have predicted a global pandemic that would increase exponentially, increase the need for even more initiatives addressing mental health. So, if you haven’t checked out Right Direction and its many free resources or participated on one of the webinars that we’ve been putting on, I encourage you to do so.

You can also contact Sean or your Employers Health client solutions executive by phone or email to learn how you can work to address the stigma of mental health and depression in the workplace.

Before we end, I want to share this month’s keyword for the $50 Visa gift card giveaway. This month’s keyword is stigma. Be sure to submit the keyword on the landing page to be entered into this month’s drawing.

There’s always something new at Employers Health. We’re moving at a very rapid pace, so be sure to follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter to stay up to date.

Again, don’t forget to submit your questions by completing the field on the landing page and clicking the link titled Submit Your Questions Here, and be sure to tune in to an upcoming episode to hear the answers to those questions.

That’ll conclude this month’s episode. Thank you again to Sean for sharing his insight and expertise and for all the Right Direction team’s work in addressing depression in the workplace, and thank you for taking the time to listen, but more importantly, thank you for your continued membership and interest in Employers Health.

Be well, and we’ll see you soon.