For Better and For Worse
There is more good news. Some indicators of mental health are measuring better today than when assessed last year, before the relentless virus arrived in the U.S. When comparing February 2021 to February 2020:

• Risk of addiction (women only) is down 39%
• Nonconscious negativity bias is down 8%
• Social connectivity is up 3%

Conversely, when it comes to focus and general anxiety, the news is not so positive:

• Sustained attention is down 33%
• Risk of general anxiety is up 30%

The Mental Health Index: U.S. Worker Edition, powered by Total Brain, a mental health and brain performance self-monitoring and self-care platform, is distributed in partnership with the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, One Mind at Work, and the HR Policy Association and its American Health Policy Institute.

Louis Gagnon, CEO, Total Brain said, “Despite our nation beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel, now is not the time for employers to pull back on mental health investments. A mental health crisis existed long before COVID-19.  Data prior to the pandemic revealed a stunning 70% of U.S. workers’ brain capacity is impaired to some degree by stress and high-risk of mental health conditions – a reminder that the pandemic only amplified an existing crisis that is still left to be addressed.”

Colleen McHugh, executive vice president of the American Health Policy Institute and strategic advisor for HR Policy Association, commented, “While it is positive to see improvement in some measures, large employers know that supporting employees’ mental health and overall well-being is a strategic imperative. There is no one size fits all approach. Many employers continue to introduce supportive programs focused on removing the stigma by treating mental health like physical health and providing as much flexibility as possible to support employees during these challenging times.”

“A year into the pandemic, there is clearly hope at the end of the tunnel,” said Michael Thompson, National Alliance president and CEO. “Employers’ focus on empathetic management and setting rational expectations related to managing the virus is helping to mitigate the mental distress of working through this era.”

Garen Staglin, chairman, One Mind at Work, cautioned “While we are very pleased to see positive trends, we should be very clear that anxiety, depression, and PTSD are, and will remain, at elevated levels. Much like the warnings from the CDC on the virus, these conditions need our focus and innovative treatments. They will also long outlive the pandemic and there is no vaccine for them!”

The full Mental Health Index results can be found here. For more information and additional insights there will be a complimentary 30-minute webinar on Friday, March 19 at 12 p.m. EST. Register here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_InKxTvGyR06EdzbBse7F9g

Methodology: The Mental Health Index: U.S. Worker Edition contains data drawn from a weekly randomized sample of 500 working Americans taken from a larger universe of Total Brain users. The Index is NOT a survey or a poll. Data is culled from neuroscientific brain assessments using standardized digital tasks and questions from the Total Brain platform. Participants include workers from all walks of life and regions, job levels, occupations, industries, and types of organizations (public vs. private). The brain assessments used to compile the Mental Health Index were taken weekly from January 18 to February 26, 2021.

About Total Brain: Total Brain is based in San Francisco and publicly listed in Sydney, AUS (ASX:TTB). Total Brain is a mental health and brain performance self-monitoring and self-care platform that has 1M registered users. Benefits for employers and payers include better mental healthcare access, lower costs and higher productivity. totalbrain.com

About the National Alliance: The National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions (National Alliance) is the only nonprofit, purchaser-led organization with a national and regional structure dedicated to driving health and healthcare value across the country. Its members represent private and public sector, nonprofit, and Taft-Hartley organizations, and more than 45 million Americans spending over $300 billion annually on healthcare. nationalalliancehealth.org

About One Mind: One Mind at Work is a leading mental health non-profit that catalyzes comprehensive action across the scale of the brain health crisis, working from science to patients to society. Moving toward its VISION of HEALTHY BRAINS FOR ALL, One Mind is accelerating treatments and cures for mental disorders and providing hope to patients and their families. Launched in 2017, One Mind at Work is a global coalition of employers from diverse sectors who have joined together to transform approaches to mental health and addiction. One Mind at Work now includes more than 60 global employers and 25 research and content partners. The coalition covers more than 7 million people under its Charter. onemindatwork.org

HR Policy Association: HR Policy Association is the lead organization representing Chief Human Resource Officers at major employers. The Association consists of over 390 of the largest corporations doing business in the United States and globally, and these employers are represented in the organization by their most senior human resource executive. Collectively, their companies employ more than 10 million employees in the United States, over nine percent of the private sector workforce, and 20 million employees worldwide. These senior corporate officers participate in the Association because of their commitment to improving the direction of human resource policy. hrpolicy.org.

American Health Policy Institute: American Health Policy Institute is a non-partisan non-profit think tank, started by the HR Policy Foundation, that examines the practical implications of health policy changes through the lens of large employers. The Institute examines the challenges employers face in providing health care to their employees and recommends policy solutions to promote the provision of affordable, high-quality, employer-based health care. The Institute serves to provide thought leadership grounded in the practical experience of America’s largest employers. Their mission is to develop impactful strategies to ensure that those purchasing health care are able to not only bend the cost curve, but actually break it, by keeping health care cost inflation in line with general inflation. americanhealthpolicy.org.