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One of my favorite things about being in-house counsel is my expanded role in helping my clients bring their visions to fruition, when I am not “just” a lawyer advising on the law. I especially light up when their vision, their project, their goals align with my core values, and I get invited to brainstorm solutions and ideas — beyond my legal role. One such area that I am particularly passionate about is Mental Health Awareness.
Over a month ago, I had the privilege of speaking on a panel at the American Bar Association’s Equal Employment Opportunity conference on Addressing Mental Health in the Workplace. I learned so much from preparing for the panel with my esteemed fellow panelists and from the rich discussion at the conference, including the fact that one U.S. adult in five experiences a mental illness each year with one of those mental illnesses in 20 being serious, according to the National Alliance of Mental Illness.
Since sharing is caring, here are some ideas that you may want to take back to your respective companies, especially in light of Mental Health Awareness Month.
Increasing Access To Help
Beyond the traditional Employee Assistance Program, some companies have increased access to help. For example, one company added telemedicine while another regularly brings a counselor to campus. Several companies brought in speakers to raise awareness.
One company added fertility benefits (including egg freezing), childcare subsidies, and back-up childcare to help parents and those employees who struggle with becoming parents. The company also provides access to homecare for elders.
One company provides access to a masseuse periodically, in addition to monthly wellness stipends, while one innovative hospital is building a corporate spa on-site for medical staff who are so committed to their patients that they are reticent to leave the hospital to use the previously provided self-care stipends. Of course, it is important to make employees aware of the benefits that companies provide and provide awareness training for supervisors so they can help support their teams.
Mindfulness, Meditation, And Movement
A common space for companies to delve into is offering free membership to Headspace or other meditation apps for employees and encouraging meditation breaks. Some companies take it a step further and offer facilitated meditation or mindfulness trainings over Teams. Others create quiet spaces in the workplace where employees can decompress when something exacerbates anxiety. Some companies offer facilitated movement breaks and chair yoga. Extra-fun examples were providing bounce houses for employees to blow off steam and corporate puppy therapy experiences.
Time On And Off
Remote work and flexible scheduling rose to the top as ways to support employees. Sabbaticals or “forced” time off was also mentioned — in addition to company-wide shutdowns from one day once a month to an entire week where employees can truly unplug because of lack of email traffic. One organization moved the team to a 32-to-34 hour workweek on a staggered Monday-Thursday/Tuesday-Friday schedule to try to prevent burnout.
While not all these ideas could work for every employer, what gave me the most hope was the shared commitment by all those attending the session about the importance of this work, normalizing the inclusion of mental healthcare in what society traditionally considers health care, and destigmatizing mental illness.
Meyling “Mey” Ly Ortiz is in-house at Toyota Motor North America. Her passions include mentoring, championing belonging, and a personal blog: TheMeybe.com. At home, you can find her doing her best to be a “fun” mom to a toddler and preschooler and chasing her best self on her Peloton. You can follow her on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/meybe/). And you knew this was coming: her opinions are hers alone.
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