Mental health challenges remain omnipresent 

October 10, 2024

Over the past decade, employers have prioritized expanding access to mental health and substance use support. Their ongoing efforts took on new urgency during the pandemic, when workers and their family members – whether homebound or on the front lines providing essential services – faced a range of unprecedented stressors. Over the past three years, seven in ten employers have enhanced or expanded their employee assistance program and around half have added a supplemental provider network for virtual or in-person care to expand access.  

The good news is that more people are getting care. A review of claims in our Mercer Compass data warehouse, which includes over one million plan members, found that 9.7% of members received behavioral health care in Q1 2024, up significantly from just 7.5% of members in Q1 2020, just prior to the pandemic.  

Utilization has grown as well. The average number of behavioral health office visits per 1,000 members during the 18 months prior to the pandemic was 950; since then, it has averaged 1,250 visits, an increase of 29%. Importantly, almost 30% of those visits are tele-behavioral health. A silver lining of the pandemic was that it introduced many people to tele-behavioral health, and our data shows that many are sticking with this convenient – and often more accessible – care modality. 

It is also heartening to note that the soon-to-be-released EBRI/Greenwald 2024 Workplace Wellness Survey found that workers’ level of concern about their mental well-being has eased somewhat in 2024. Last year, when asked if their mental health negatively impacts their work performance, 52% of workers somewhat or strongly agreed; in 2024, that number declined to 47%.  

More work is needed  

But not all the news is good – far from it. According to the most recent data from CDC, 13.2 million people seriously thought about suicide in 2022; 3.8 million made a plan, 1.6 million made an attempt, and 49,000 people died. Over 100,000 people died of drug overdose in 2023 with opioids, particularly illicitly manufactured fentanyl, as the main driver.  

Crisis intervention is critically important. Employers should talk to their vendor partners about how they respond to and support crisis calls. In addition, employees need to be more aware of crisis support. If you are not familiar with the 988 Crisis hotline, check out our blog post and video. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, previously known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, offers 24/7 call, text and chat access to trained crisis counselors who can help people experiencing suicidal thoughts, a substance use or mental health crisis, or any kind of emotional distress. Since it launched in July 2022, 988 has received nearly 6.4 million calls, 1.4 million chats, and 1.6 million texts. But KFF polling indicates that public awareness of 988 is still generally low, with only 18% of adults reporting they have heard a lot or some about it. 988 does not replace employers’ efforts to support workers and their families, but it can be leveraged as another source of help for people in crisis. In many town and cities, it is typical for 911 and 988 to cross refer – so there is no wrong way in. Many school systems educate students on 988 – maybe it is time for employers to do the same. 

Raising awareness of 988 and all mental health resources is key – and your efforts to encourage employees to get the help they need will also go a long way toward destigmatizing mental health and substance use problems.