INTRODUCTION TO THE MENTAL HEALTH TOOL KIT
Emotional wellness is an integral part of overall wellness, and a well adjusted workforce is a more productive workforce. This Mental Health Toolkit is designed for your organization as a FREE resource to assess the overall mental wellness of your organization and to aid employees who may be struggling with mental health concerns.
The 5 part Tool Kit offers a menu of customized trainings, offsite mental health experts, personal consultations, mental health screening tools and a 1-800 Mental Health Helpline.
These resources are meant to be used in conjunction with the Mental Health Association in New Jersey as a free auxiliary mental health support team for your Human Resources, EAP, Diversity or Disability departments in order to improve the overall mental health and productivity of your corporate environment.
The Mental Health Association in New Jersey is dedicated to promoting good mental health for all New Jerseyans, reducing the barriers that prevent to many people from seeking or offering help and support and building a stronger base of support and network of services for people with mental health challenges. We have been serving our state in this capacity for over 60 years and have provided the leadership in reducing the stigma that surrounds mental health issues, thereby ensuring that thousands of adults, children and families receive the services they need to live their best lives possible.
We look forward to partnering with your company to ensure the emotional wellness of your employees and their families and the increased productivity of your workforce.
The Mental Health Association in New Jersey
OCCUPATIONAL MENTAL HEALTH INVENTORY
The Mental Health Association in New Jersey (MHANJ) provides each organization with a FREE meeting with Eric Arauz, our Employment Outreach Specialist. Mr. Arauz will administer an Occupational/Workplace Mental Health Inventory for your company and discuss with your team the current mental health environment in your workplace. An Occupational Mental Health Inventory includes discussions around such issues as:
• Do your HR, Disability, Diversity and EAP departments understand the co-morbidity of depression with other chronic illnesses and the loss of productivity by not addressing this issue?
• What do you see as most pressing mental health issues for your current workforce?
• What are the options available for your workforce to seek help with mental health concerns?
• How do you promote a stigma free workplace environment when it comes to dealing with mental health concerns?
• Does your company have access to the mental health coverage you need in your health care plan and can you find it if you want to?
MHANJ will then take the information gathered at this initial meeting and create a FREE training individually tailored to your organization’s needs and work with your team to schedule a presentation for your employees.
MENTAL HEALTH TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TEAM
The Mental Health Association in New Jersey’s Occupational Mental Heath Experts provide technical assistance to your company. Your Human Resources Department is given a 1-800 number for work related mental health issues. Queries will be answered immediately.
The MHANJ’s Mental Health Technical Assistance Line serves as a FREE resource for your HR staff to aid then in handling any and all mental health concerns your employees and their families might be facing.
We can help your organization with many questions and concerns, including issues such as:
• How can managers intercede with employees they believe are having mental health problems?
• What is the best way for an HR professional to create a supportive atmosphere for employees experiencing mental health problems?
• What types of benefits should your health insurance provide to insure optimal mental health?
• What are the first steps an HR professional should take in the case of a mental health emergency in the workplace?
CUSTOMIZED ON SITE TRAINING: HOW TO IDENTIFY MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES IN THE WORKPLACE
The Mental Health Association in New Jersey provides FREE on-site, customized training to familiarize your staff with the various signs of employees who may be experiencing mental health issues. The training informs Human Resource, Disability and Diversity management teams about the symptoms of a variety of mental illnesses and how to deal with them.
Training is provided by one of our qualified mental health educators.
Using the information gathered in the Occupational Mental Health Inventory, we will focus the training on your organization’s specific needs and characteristics.
Some possible training topics include:
• Depression and Working Moms
• Signs and Treatments for Workplace Stress/ Employee Burnout
• Depression and the Recession
• Anxiety in the Workplace: Awareness and Treatment
• Co-Occurrence of mental health problems with other chronic illnesses i.e. Hypertension, Arthritis, Asthma, Diabetes and Ulcers
• Signs & Symptoms of various Mental Health Conditions
Access to NJ MentalHealthCares: MHANJ’s Helpline 1-866-202-HELP(4357)
The Mental Health Association in New Jersey offers your Human Resources, Disability and Diversity Departments full access to NJ MentalHealth-Cares, our FREE helpline specializing in information about, and referral to over 35,000 New Jersey mental health and related services.
This HelpLine is a valuable tool for Human Resources Departments as they attempt to navigate our state’s mental health system on behalf of employees.
Employees can also use NJ MentalHealthCares for their personal use. By calling NJ MentalHealthCares, they can talk to a knowledgeable professional about any personal mental health related questions they may have about themselves or their family members. All calls are confidential and, with their permission, all callers receive follow-up calls to ensure they are satisfied with the information and referral they received. We will speak to callers in whatever language they are most comfortable.
SELF-SCREENING MENTAL HEALTH TOOLS
FOR EMPLOYEES LIVING WITH CHRONIC ILLNESSES
Mental health screening is a valuable tool assist in identifying symptoms of various mental health concerns and allows the employee to seek help if so desired. Screening is not a diagnostic tool. It is meant to give individuals a better sense as to whether or not they should seek professional mental health assistance in order to explore their concerns.
The Mental Health Association in New Jersey provides your company with online mental health screening tools that an individual employee can use confidentially and at their own discretion. Tools are available to explore these mental health concerns and others:
• Overall Mental Health
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Seasonal Affective Disorder
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Panic Attacks
Research shows that many chronic illnesses are accompanied by depression, which often goes untreated. It also shows that when screened and treated for depression, employees with chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and asthma, are absent from work 66% less often than when not screened and treated for depression.
CO-SPONSORS & CONTACT INFORMATION
FundaMENTAL Health, Bottomline Sense:
Making Mental Health a Business Priority
Co-Sponsors:
• Association for Corporate Wellness
• Garden State Council- SHRM
• Hire Disabilities Solutions
• John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development
• MOSAIC
• NJ Chamber of Commerce
• Rutgers School of Management & Labor Relations
For further information, contact:
Eric Arauz, MLER
Employment Outreach Specialist
Mental Health Association in New Jersey
88 Pompton Ave.
Verona, NJ 07044
973.571.4100 ext. 136
earauz@mhanj.org
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Mental Health Association in New Jersey, Inc.; Tool Kit for Mental Health in the Workplace
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Small businesses sick of healthcare debate
Reuters.com
CHICAGO - Amy Nichols, a small business owner, is tired of the healthcare debate and is relieved President Obama has turned his attention toward her biggest concern: access to credit.
Nichols, who in 2002 launched Dogtopia - a daycare service for dogs - and grew it into a successful franchise that includes 20 locations, is now hamstrung by tight credit. Several of her newly-minted franchisees are in a holding pattern trying to get loans and Nichols has found it equally challenging in her own bid to secure credit.
"Being open for eight years I should be able to get a bank loan with relative ease and that's just not the case," said Nichols, who admitted she was unhappy with what she perceived as the Obama administration force-feeding a healthcare reform bill that she believes, could drive rising insurance costs even higher, especially for small companies. Nichols favors a less prescriptive plan that would give her the freedom to opt out and create her own franchise-wide program.
"Twisting my arm and making me pay into something I don't believe in is not the way to do it," said Nichols, noting that monthly healthcare expenses of $4,000 for her seven full-time employees remain a burden. "People are really afraid of that policy and how it's going to impact us as business owners."
Healthcare weariness is widespread among small business owners. Across the country, entrepreneurs appear dissatisfied with a debate they said tuned out the needs of small businesses, which have significantly higher healthcare costs than those of larger corporations.
"The top business priority is getting the economy functioning properly so that people are creating jobs and there's growth," said Chris Mittelstaedt, founder and CEO of The FruitGuys, a South San Francisco, California company that delivers fresh fruit from local farms to thousands of businesses.
Mittelstaedt said his company, which had flat sales of less than $10 million in 2009 from the prior year, is experiencing inflationary pressures that have driven up transportation and packaging costs in the past year.
"Those kinds of things are really big numbers," said Mittelstaedt, who provides the option of $200 each to some 20 full-time employees for monthly health coverage. He would like to see a government health reform package that offers tax incentives and other breaks to companies that foster wellness programs and other preventive health measures for workers.
"The cost of healthcare is really big in this economy, but the economy is bigger than the cost of healthcare," he said.
Findings from a year-end poll by the National Small Business Association, a Washington-based trade group, reflected the concerns of business owners like Mittelstaedt and Nichols. Healthcare, while still important, slipped back behind worries about economic uncertainty and federal taxes, according to the majority of small business owners surveyed. The January report revealed only 61 percent of small businesses polled were able to find adequate financing, down from 78 percent in August 2008.
"When you talk to small business people about what their struggles are, obviously the economy and getting credit are really high on the list," said Todd McCracken, NSBA president. "As the (healthcare) debate went on, they saw that less and less of what was happening was going to drive down healthcare costs, which was their overriding concern."
There is no easy healthcare solution for small businesses, which span a diverse range of industries and sizes. But those who study the issue say the answer may lie in some form of pooling that allows these companies to share resources and gain economies of scale.
HEALTHCARE EXCHANGE
Alain Enthoven, professor emeritus of public and private management at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, supports an exchange-based system, which fosters a competition between private and government-backed healthcare providers that helps drive down costs for businesses. He said a national solution must achieve more efficiencies and increased competition from health providers, noting that the Congressional Budget Office determined the recent House and Senate bills would not moderate the growth of healthcare costs.
"Most small employers are locked into a single fee-for-service plan and that's inflationary," said Enthoven, who cites successful exchanges such as the California Public Employees' Retirement System, which offers a range of healthcare options to state workers. "What we really need is an industrial revolution in healthcare, in which the health-services industry is reorganized along the lines of quality and efficiency."
The Healthy Americans Act, a Senate bill reintroduced a year ago by Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, and Senator Robert Bennett, a Utah Republican, is one measure that draws on the ideas of universal health insurance and market principles, according to Enthoven.
The healthcare debate, of course, remains a priority for President Obama, who has called for a bi-partisan meeting of Congressional leaders on the issue in the coming weeks. The Small Business Majority, a nonprofit group focused on healthcare reform to help small companies, is trying to keep the healthcare needs of small companies at the forefront. But these days, the president's attention appears to be shifting to more immediate small business concerns.
Following a promise in his State of the Union address, the president last week called on Congress to divert $30 billion from the TARP bank bailout program for a small business lending fund to try to spur job growth. The initiative targets small community banks with assets of less than $10 billion. That move followed a bid for legislation that would provide $5,000 tax breaks to small businesses that hire additional workers in 2010, among other tax incentives.
Those are steps in the right direction, said the NSBA's McCracken, whose group is pushing for more details on the new loan program.
"Those are really our highest priorities right now."
