Mental health strategies: Utilize technology

<= Talk openly about mental health

Utilize apps.

Apps that focus on areas such as mindfulness, stress reduction and better sleep are tools that some employers are turning to in an effort to improve employees’ mental health. Provider Headspace says it’s seen a 400%-plus increase in requests from companies seeking support for their employees’ mental health since mid-March, and Big Health cites that same triple-digit increase in employer interest in the same timeframe. Both firms are offering their products free to employers for a limited time to help during the pandemic. Starbucks is one company offering Headspace, the daily meditation and mindfulness app, to its workers. “It really cleanses and settles the mind, [especially as] we’ve been dealing with COVID,” Starbucks regional vice president Camille Hymes said in early May during an Instagram Live video. “People have worries and fears–and it’s all normal, and we recognize that. And we want to make sure they have an outlet for it.”

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Kathryn Mayer
Kathryn Mayer is HRE’s former benefits editor and chair of the Health & Benefits Leadership Conference. She has covered benefits for the better part of a decade, and her stories have won multiple awards, including a Jesse H. Neal Award and honors from the American Society of Business Publication Editors and the National Federation of Press Women. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Denver.