Companies can save money, and possibly lives, through treatment and prevention of mental illness

From Hemispheres Magazine, an extended feature encouraging companies to address mental illness in the workplace early and appropriately. Tom Johnson, a former chairman and CEO of CNN Newsgroup, has publicly acknowledged his experiences with depression and says it can be treated, often with dramatic positive results. He says stigma should not prevent people from getting the treatment they need to improve their lives.

Johnson offers these suggestions for employers:

First, make sure your insurance programs cover mental health and encourage open discussion of mental health issues. Mandate that staffers take vacations; too much stress for too long can trigger problems. Ignorance of mental health problems does not make profitable bliss, so ask employees how to make the workplace more pleasant and productive.

If an employee needs help, Johnson would urge that person to consult a professional for an accurate diagnosis, and if medication is prescribed, to take it. Consider “talk therapy” (also called cognitive behavioral therapy) to “clean out the toxic stuff in almost all of us—the guilt, fears, insecurities, anger, hurts, bad interpersonal relationships.” Take personal responsibility: Incorporate exercise and some quiet time into your routine. Cultivate good, trusted friends and family, remove every stressor possible, and stay away from harmful substances. “Find joys in your life,” Johnson says, “old joys and new joys. And have fun. Do not become a workaholic, as I did.”

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 28th, 2007 at 9:26 am and is filed under depression, employment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post