Yes, mental health is on every HR leader’s radar — as it should be. Burnout, absenteeism, and rising mental health claims are top concerns across industries. Employers are investing in therapy stipends, mindfulness apps, and emotional wellness programs.

But there’s one critical driver of mental health that’s still hiding in plain sight: caregiving.

Whether it’s a new parent adjusting to life with an infant, a working mom managing a teen in crisis, or an employee trying to support a parent with Alzheimer’s from a thousand miles away—caregiving isn’t a side hustle. It’s a second full-time job, and it’s one of the most overlooked determinants of employee mental health today. Caregiving doesn’t show up on a claim line. But its impact is real and the costs are high

It’s not controversial to say that parents and caregivers are stressed.

No one who knows a parent or caregiver would object to saying that it's one of the toughest jobs. Between the emotional toll, the physical tasks, the split attention, and the mental load of keeping all of the balls in the air, there’s a lot weighing on parents and caregivers. That constant, invisible effort follows them to work and impacts their ability to fully engage. And we are seeing it in the data we collect from our members.
A recent Family Health Index report shows:

●     65% of parents of neurodivergent children are at higher risk of burnout
●     53% of caregivers of adult loved ones are at higher risk of burnout. This risk goes up higher for those taking care of a loved one with a chronic health condition (61%) or at the end of life (57%)
●     60% of caregivers screen positive for depression and anxiety
●     Higher risk caregivers report an average of 11.4 weeks of lost productivity annually

Companies sometimes unwittingly view therapy and mental health support as episodic: Go to therapy once or twice, and you’re done. But that’s not the way that caregiving works. What’s unique about caregiving stress is that it’s chronic. It’s deeply personal, and so much of it is compounding on top of itself from day to day, and year to year. If it goes unsupported, which it so often does — where many parents and caregivers resign and say “this is just how it is” — it chips away at health, work engagement, and focus.

All of this is already costing employers and health plans real dollars, I promise you.

Related: Boosting mental health benefits usage: A Q&A with Mindi Cox

Mental health resources work great — if your employees use them.

A recent study in JAMA Psychiatry surveyed nearly 57,000 adults with a diagnosed mental health disorder across 21 countries. They found that less than 7% were receiving effective treatment.

The top reason they were not receiving treatment? Surprisingly, it wasn’t stigma, access, cost, or time — it was “low perceived need.”

Essentially, nearly half of the respondents did not think that mental health support was relevant to their needs — despite having a diagnosed, DSM-V mental health disorder.

This is a massive gap, and one that many companies are not considering as they build their mental health strategies. This is the same reason that, unfortunately, EAP access tends to be low.

Connecting the dots between caregiving and mental health needs to be an essential part of your strategy.

Those caring for a child, an adult, or both, as well as those “caregivers in waiting” who will be caring for an aging parent or relative someday, make up the vast majority of your workforce. And they need support — not only with mental health directly, but with task completion, with logistics, with research, with education, with communication skills, with health care navigation, and with emotional support and reassurance.

When you support them with all of those needs, guess what happens?

Their mental health improves. They miss fewer days and deadlines. They take fewer leaves of absence. They’re more attentive and focused at work. They are more loyal; more likely to stay with your company in the long run. And if they have a true mental health disorder and need, they are much more likely to access it in the context of helping themselves in order to help their family.

Together, these elements translate into dollars saved — a hard ROI that is non-negotiable in today’s workforce.

Now more than ever as the population ages, employers and health plans need to begin addressing this growing portion of their constituency, whose health and wellbeing impact health care costs, including the growing demand for mental health services and increased prevalence of chronic conditions such as hypertension and heart disease. Caregiving isn’t going away, and neither are mental health concerns. Caregiver burnout is a growing mental health crisis that often goes unrecognized until it’s too late. Early identification is critical, but prevention is even more powerful. Providing support to the parents and caregivers just might be the element you’re missing to see demonstrable mental health improvement in your workforce.