Nearly 80 percent of employers offer programs to promote the physical wellbeing of their employees. They may want to expand wellness programs to address depression and other mental health issues, based on a disturbing trend documented in a recent study by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
"Every 20 minutes, someone commits suicide in the United States," says Bert Alicea, licensed psychologist and vice president of EAP and Work/Life Services for Health Advocate Inc. in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania. "Given that rate, there is a possibility of a suicide at your workplace."
The study found that slightly more than 1,700 employees committed suicide in the workplace between 2003 and 2010, for an overall rate of 1.5 per one million workers. Suicides declined between 2003 and 2007 but then spiked during the remaining years of the study. Non-workplace suicides totaled 270,500 during this period, for a rate of 144 per one million people.
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