In this episode of the Perspectives podcast, sponsored by MetLife and hosted on BenefitsPRO, we'll hear highlights from the October 28th presentation titled, Breaking Down the Mental Health Stigma Through Collaboration. 

The U.S. workforce is currently facing an increased amount of stress, and it seems to grow every day in light of the coronavirus pandemic, economic downturn and more. This type of mental strain can impact employee productivity and overall health. Tracey Ferstler, Ph.D., Assistant Vice President, Head of Return to Health, U.S. Claims and Operations at MetLife, and Garen K. Staglin, Co-Founder of One Mind, Founding Organization Of One Mind At Work, lend insights to help brokers and plan sponsors craft better mental health solutions during this challenging time.

The full on-demand webcast can be found here: https://www.benefitspro.com/2020/09/25/breaking-down-the-mental-health-stigma-through-collaboration/

Tracey Ferstler, Ph.D. | Assistant Vice President, Head of Return to Health, U.S. Claims and Operations | MetLife

Tracey is responsible for MetLife's Return to Health (Clinical) organization and Network Management teams. For the last two years she has been part of the Process Excellence team as an Assistant Vice President, partnering with the Global Claims Organization on the planning and execution of various transformational initiatives.

She started at MetLife in 2004 as a vocational rehabilitation counselor in the company's Disability organization and worked in a number of product operations areas (TAM, STD, LTD, and Clinical) as a disability consultant and senior operations manager. Tracey also supported the Group Dental Organization as the director of vendor channel management. She is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC) and holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology.

Garen K. Staglin | Co-Founder | One Mind – Founding Organization Of One Mind At Work

Garen and his wife, Shari, are Co-Founders and Board members of One Mind ("OM") (formerly the International Mental Health Research Organization), a 501c(3) non-profit organization. During the last twenty six years, OM and the  Music Festival for Brain Health event have raised almost $500 million for mental health charities and research. Launched in 2011 with former Congressman Patrick Kennedy and now led by President, Brandon Staglin, One Mind is pursuing a number of large scale public private partnerships in Schizophrenia, TBI and PTS as well as funding cutting edge research with 38 rising star scientists.

Garen is a private equity investor and philanthropist with more than 40 years of experience in building and starting companies in the financial services and payment industries. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Silicon Valley Bank, ExL Services, and Profit Velocity Solutions. He is also a Senior Advisor to FTV Capital. Garen is a graduate of UCLA, B.S.-Engineering (1966), and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, MBA (1968). He is a recipient of the Gold Spike Award, Stanford University's highest award for volunteer service and the UCLA College of Letters & Science Fellows Award. He was Co-Chairman of the UCLA Centennial Capital Campaign which set a record for a public university raising $5.48 Billion.