Many leading employers invested in diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEI&B) initiatives in 2020, and continuing this momentum into 2021 is paramount.
For those of us working in workplace mental health, 2020 was a year like none other, full of challenges we'd never seen before. Between quarantine disruption, incalculable national grief, the fight for racial justice, and political instability, human resource leaders' plates were full as they worked to transform and redefine the way they supported employees. Despite the challenges, I've found that the lessons learned in the past year have helped many companies become more aware of the importance of delivering culturally responsive benefits that promote both well-being and equity.
Dr. Danielle Cottonham is a licensed psychologist in California and serves as the clinical manager for Lyra Health's Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging initiatives. Dr. Cottonham's work is rooted in her experience as a Black woman who was born and raised in southern Louisiana. She has a passion for destigmatizing mental health in minority communities and providing safe spaces that promote connection, authenticity, and healing. A key part of that transformation has been evaluating whether a mental health benefit supports the needs of your diverse workforce, including the needs of employees who are reeling from the pandemic, race-based traumatic stress, or mental health concerns related to oppression of other social identities, such as LGBTQ+ and living with disabilities.
How can you know whether your company's mental health benefits adequately reflect and incorporate your DEI&B values? The answer lies in ensuring that your employees have access to care that helps them feel seen and heard, wholly and authentically. Here are a few ways you can see if your organization measures up.
Match benefits to evolving needs amid the COVID-19 pandemic
The growing need for a transformational approach to mental health care benefits has been compounded this year by the COVID-19 pandemic. A study from Lyra Health and the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions found more than 80% of U.S. employees are experiencing mental health issues and the company's State of Mental Health at Work 2021 Report noted that 48% of workers say their mental health has impacted their capacity to work over the past year.
In addition, U.S. adults reported considerably elevated adverse mental health conditions associated with COVID-19, according to a CDC report from June 2020. The report concludes, "Younger adults, racial/ethnic minorities, essential workers, and unpaid adult caregivers reported having experienced disproportionately worse mental health outcomes, increased substance use, and elevated suicidal ideation."
These groups are often less likely to seek treatment than others because of stigma, understandable cultural mistrust toward health care providers. With underserved populations facing significant and severe stressors, HR leaders have a responsibility to make high-quality, comprehensive mental health support accessible.
Require representation from employee benefits partners and respective networks
Your benefits partner should have a responsive care network that reflects the demographics of your teams, including providers that identify as BIPOC, LGBTQ+, disabled, and other minority populations. At Lyra, 83% of our providers have indicated it is important for them to support and serve individuals who identify as belonging to a racial and/or ethnic minority or a traditionally underserved groups.
In addition to network representation, a mental health benefit should also be dedicated to putting the tenets of DEI&B into action through offering culturally responsive care (CRC), a philosophy rooted in a multicultural approach that accounts for how someone's cultural background can define and impact an individual's experience.
HR leaders should revisit existing benefits policies through the lens of diversity and inclusion. If they need to be adjusted, look for mental health care benefits that will:
- Create clinical content tailored for underrepresented minorities.
- Share materials to support the promotion of a more diverse and inclusive environment.
- Make it easier for employees to search for providers who can address specific mental health needs, such as racial stress.
- Set and communicate specific, quantifiable goals evaluating effectiveness of care for these efforts – and measure progress over time.
Employers should consider the influence of mental health stigma on accessing and receiving care — and use the clinical expertise of your mental health benefit as a starting point to strategically and effectively fight stigma in the workplace. Even better, when an executive who self-identifies as being a member of one of these underserved communities shares a personal story about mental health, it can help to destigmatize and encourage access to benefits.
Use technology to improve mental health accessibility
Part of that access is quite literally the ability to see and hear clearly the benefits being offered. Those who have disabilities have specific needs that are often overlooked. For instance, nearly all websites in America fail to meet accessibility requirements for people with disabilities. According to a recent Web Accessibility Annual Report, 98% of U.S.-based webpages are not accessible to the disability community from a legal perspective — likely including many of your benefits and HR sites.
A quality mental health offering should take the unique challenges of all of your employees into account. This may include selecting mental health offerings that interface with technology guidelines, so that those with visual impairments or motor skills challenges can easily navigate them. You can also ask who your benefits provider works with to guide accessibility standards. For example, each of Lyra Health's current offerings, such as video and live messaging sessions, lessons and exercises, already meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), the industry standard.
Looking ahead to the future of diversity and inclusion in mental health
In a time of such broad and complex social disruption, we're experiencing an objective reminder that mental health impacts are here, broadly felt, and likely to continue for a long period of time. DEI&B is foundational to comprehensive mental health, from offering culturally responsive care to aligning with corporate values.
Offering and promoting mental health benefits that are evidence-based, culturally responsive and supported by company leaders can lead to meaningful progress in prioritizing the needs of traditionally underserved communities – who are also in the greatest need of care today. Companies today must offer services that meet the unique mental health needs of their employees. A one-size-fits-all mental health program simply doesn't work. The real magic happens when we bring together diverse perspectives and elevate traditionally underrepresented voices.
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