Here’s what you need in your mental healthcare plans

  • postauthorEditorial Staff
  • postdateFebruary 1, 2024
  • postreadtime4 min read
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Corporate life is known to take a toll on the individual. Additionally, with the advent of the pandemic, there is tremendous uncertainty among employees. 1 in every 3 employees in India has experienced some kind of mental upheaval in recent times. 

Considering the seriousness of the situation, businesses must start offering corporate mental wellness packages or mental healthcare plans for employees. Before we proceed in detail about the packages, let’s delve into the definition of mental wellbeing. 

What is Mental Wellbeing?   

The term “mental well-being” is an all-encompassing word that includes the psychological, social and emotional wellbeing of an individual. It directly affects the way a person acts, feels, and thinks about themselves and their surroundings. 

This is especially important for an employee as it determines their ability to function in the most optimum manner to their assigned job role. A mentally balanced employee without a doubt would be able to handle stress better and control their reactions to tough people and situations. 

In contrast, mentally troubled employees have trouble conjuring up enthusiasm towards work and would find it challenging to negotiate tough situations even to the extent of being unable to make informed choices in their work environment. When it comes to mental health, it sometimes also depends on the types of mental illness an employee suffers from.  

A corporate mental wellness package is intended to pre-empt such a situation while offering the necessary support and encouragement to all employees within the organization. In case of severe mental illness, the organization can refer the employee to mental health facilities for mental health treatment and mental therapy.  

Importance of Mental healthcare plans

Since we have covered mental wellbeing, we must cover what makes it necessary for mental wellness packages to be implemented in organizations:   

Improved Productivity

Low productivity is directly connected to poor mental wellbeing. Employees too often slog at their desks without accomplishing much at the end of the day. Such scenarios can be prevented altogether by introducing the employees to healthy living through wellness programs.  

Increased Employee Engagement

When companies start focusing on their employees’ wellbeing, it automatically starts having a bearing on employee engagement. Alternatively, in companies without any wellness programs, employees altogether feel neglected and imagine having to fend for themselves. It only promotes further lethargy at work. 

Altered Behaviours

Usually, employees within companies seek freedom from stress by adopting detrimental behaviors like smoking and drinking alcohol. In the long-term, this has huge financial repercussions, especially if they are a long-term employee. Instead, companies can introduce mental wellness programs to discourage unhealthy behaviors and bring awareness to more fulfilling lifestyle changes. That being said, in cases like depression symptoms and bipolar treatment, a different sort of medical intervention would be required for the employee from the company.   

Employee Retention

Corporate mental wellness programs directly impact how employees start to positively view their company. This promotes a culture of loyalty where happy employees are likely to stay for longer periods and work for the company with a sense of belonging. This can directly translate to low attrition within the company and substantial saving on company resources. This is part of the mental healthcare plan from the organization.  

Reduced Stress

Without any doubt, office stress is something that cannot be done away with; it comes as part of the job. However, companies can ensure employees are in a better position to deal with stress through mental wellness programs. This can be done by introducing them to healthy lifestyle behaviours sponsored by the company. In the long term, it can help keep healthcare costs at the lowest. 

mental healthcare plans

Coverage Under Mental Wellness Packages 

It is important to ask ourselves this question- does healthcare plans include mental health coverage? These seem to be the most suitable healthcare plans.  

Healthcare plan covering aid for mental illness

Although companies usually offer healthcare plans, it rarely covers mental health. Companies need to remain proactive in this area and expand the ambit of health to include conditions like depression, panic attacks, and nervous breakdowns. These are often conditions associated with high stress and it is essential that these get included as part of the company healthcare program. Onsurity’s healthcare plans provide the best solutions for mental health by providing mental wellness benefits like counseling, yoga sessions, fitness webinars and much more. 

Meditation Sessions

The practice of meditation is centuries old but science is beginning to uncover the short- and long-term benefits of regular meditation. Companies can sponsor or reimburse meditation courses/ sessions, where the employee has the opportunity to get acquainted and familiarise themselves with the practice. 

Mental Counselling

A lot of unspoken emotional baggage an employee carries around directly impacts their work. This can be resolved through mental counselling sessions with a trained psychologist. Companies can actively nudge their employees to go in for counselling sessions hosted in-house or with an outside mental health partner company. 

Yoga Sessions

It is often said that a healthy body supports a stress-free mind. Yoga can be particularly helpful in letting go of stress-induced physical pain. Corporates can introduce their employees to yoga sessions or reimburse the cost of yoga sessions undertaken by their employees in their personal capacity. HR can play a vital role in promoting such alternate lifestyle practices. This is part of the mental healthcare plan for the employee.  

Fitness Webinars

With the ongoing pandemic and due to lack of time, an employee may not be completely free to attend a fitness program in person. Instead, they can be offered company-sponsored fitness webinars where they get the opportunity to practice from the comfort of their home.   

Conclusion 

We are all living fast-paced lives and someone among us can sometimes fail to live up to the organization’s expectations. At times, this can be altogether avoided, if the company remains proactive in deploying and implementing a corporate mental wellness program. It is about nipping the problem in the bud.   

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