The Business Case
This section looks at what leaders and organizations can do to measure, assess and make the business case for implementing mental health programs in their workplaces. The "report" below highlights the need for employers to develop solutions for a wide range of mental health issues.
Forwarded by Bill Wilkerson, CEO of the Global Business and Economic Roundtable on Addiction and Mental Health
The significance of the Great-West Life Centre for Mental Health in the Workplace-and specifically its public purposes-is reflected in these two facts:
- The bulk of mental disorders in the workplace are concentrated among men and women in their prime working years.
- The principal agents of lost productive capacity in the 21st century workplace are depression, bipolar disorders and anxiety.
These types of mental illness are not only disabling but lethal. Bipolar sufferers experience a higher rate of death due to suicide and cancer. Depression increases substantially the risk of a sudden fatal heart attack, even among those with no history of heart disease.
By 2020, depression and heart disease will become the leading sources of work years lost in the labor force of the world. Five years ago, the Roundtable estimated the economic dollar costs of mental disorders are $33 billion a year.
A new study says that when we include addictions, the cost of mental disorders reaches that figure in Ontario alone.
A few years ago, the CEO of Syncrude assessed how much treated and untreated mental disorders were costing his firm. The results were startling: about 11 million barrels of lost oil production, valued at $275 million a year.
In coming to grips with these issues, businesses have long since passed the point where simple awareness-raising gets a passing grade. We are way past that as a marker of progress.
As a result, the report "Business and Economic Plan for Mental Health and Productivity" (available at www.mentalhealthroundtable.ca) offers employers a range of solutions for a variety of problems. The starting point for any of these solutions is leadership.
Adapted from article The Economic Return on Corporate and Government Investments in the Mental Health of Canadians Most Evident in the Workplace, by Bill Wilkerson, Co-Founder and CEO, Global Business and Economic Roundtable on Addiction and Mental Health. See the full article [PDF].
Mr. Wilkerson is also chairman of the Advisory Committee, Great-West Life Centre for Mental Health in the Workplace and Chairman of the Workforce Advisory Committee, Mental Health Commission of Canada.
Resources
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