| While most people don’t think twice about consulting their doctor for physical pain and other troubling symptoms, those suffering from mental health issues such as depression often hesitate to get help. Part of it is due to the stigma surrounding the condition, and the lack of awareness that depression is not a temporary state of mind.
“The more we learn about the underpinnings of depression, there is no question it’s a disease,” psychiatrist Gary Lenza, MD, an inpatient physician at Kitsap Mental Health Services, said in an earlier interview with the Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal. “It’s more than a temporary period of feeling blue or stressed.”
In addition to family, the workplace offers a good opportunity to help someone who suffers from depression — “first and foremost on humanistic grounds,” Lenza said. But having an ill employee will also impact the employer directly.
“Depression has very profound ramifications in the work setting,” he said, including missed productivity and workdays. It also inhibits a person from fulfilling his or her potential and renders the person more likely to make critical mistakes.
If left untreated, depression can last for months and years, and everything from the job, marriage and health can be impacted, with the most tragic result being suicide. Those who have one episode are very likely to have repeat ones.
Family members or co-workers who suspect mental illness can influence a person to get professional help if they do it with empathy and sympathy. Lenza said a person carrying the burden in silence often feels relieved when someone compassionately wants to help. Signs may include changes in mood such as irritability or loss of emotion, anger not consistent with the person’s usual temperament, loss of energy, fatigue, weight loss, additional health problems, diminished sexual function, and loss of pleasure or interest in usual activities.
Many employers offer an Employee Assistance Program that allows workers to address, confidentially, a variety of issues that affect them either at work or at home. The EAP usually has a toll-free phone number a person can call for an initial consultation, and receive further counseling if needed. Usually the number of visits is limited for each issue that is being addressed.
“It’s a great program because of the access and the confidentiality feature,” said Rose Yaptinchay, Employee Health director at Harrison Medical Center. “The services provide for free initial consultation and additional free visits (the number of free visits may vary among employers), confidential and accessible 24 hours a day, and available to dependents and household members.”
She said Harrison contracts the service through Cigna Behavioral Health, and any reports or information returned to Harrison doesn’t have the employee names or other identifying information. The host of issues employees can address range from stress and anger management to domestic violence, adoption, researching nursing homes, overcoming an addiction, finding balance and learning to relax and understanding finances. More services designed to improve well-being and productivity are available for employees online.
“Wellness (of employees) is very important; their well-being impacts their productivity,” Yaptinchay said. “The Employee Assistance Program is a great mechanism to address various issues.”
Wellness is becoming the focus of many employers, as they look at ways of cutting their health insurance costs by encouraging employees to lead healthier lifestyles. Harrison, for example, has a smoking cessation program, an ongoing “Lunch and Learn Wellness Series” on various topics, and massage therapists are on site three times a week for reduced-cost therapeutic table massage for staff. Other Kitsap area employees are offering other incentives. Kitsap Transit, for exampled, introduced a program two years ago offering rewards including a small paycheck bonus to employees who signed up to take two-minute brisk walks five days a week.
Part of the shift in promoting wellness includes raising awareness among employees and educating them on various health topics. Lenza said for mental illnesses, educating employees through public seminars and other resources could help with early detection.
“Depression is a treatable condition,” he said. “The vast majority of people who experience major depression can achieve good recovery with treatment.”
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