Assessing the impact of a comprehensive mental health program on frontline health service workers.

Mental health issues are a growing concern in the workplace, linked to negative outcomes including reduced productivity, increased absenteeism, and increased turnover. Employer-sponsored mental health benefits that are accessible and proactive may help address these concerns. The aim of this retrospective cohort study was to evaluate the impact of a digital mental health benefit (Spring Health) on frontline healthcare service workers' clinical and workplace outcomes. The benefit was sponsored by a national health services company from 2021-2022 and included mental health screening, care navigation, psychotherapy and/or medication management. We hypothesized program use would be associated with improvements in depression and anxiety symptoms, and increased productivity and retention. Participants were employees enrolled in the benefit program, had at least moderate anxiety or depression, at least 1 treatment appointment, and at least 2 outcome assessments. Clinical improvement measures were PHQ-9 scale (range, 0-27) for depression and GAD-7 scale (range, 0-21) for anxiety; workplace measures were employee retention and the Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS) for functional impairment. A total of 686 participants were included. Participants using the mental health benefit had a 5.60 point (95% CI, 4.40-6.79, d = 1.28) reduction in depression and a 5.48 point (95% CI, 3.88-7.08, d = 1.64) reduction in anxiety across 6 months. 69.9% (95% CI, 61.8%-78.1%) of participants reliably improved (≥5 point change) and 84.1% (95% CI, 78.2%-90.1%) achieved reliable improvement or recovery (<10 points). Participants reported 0.70 (95% CI, 0.26-1.14) fewer workdays per week impacted by mental health issues, corresponding to $3,491 (95% CI, $1305-$5677) salary savings at approximately federal median wage ($50,000). Furthermore, employees using the benefit were retained at 1.58 (95% CI, 1.4-1.76) times the rate of those who did not. Overall, this evaluation suggests that accessible, proactive, and comprehensive mental health benefits for frontline health services workers can lead to positive clinical and workplace outcomes.

Clinical and Financial Outcomes Associated With a Workplace Mental Health Program Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Importance: Investment in workplace wellness programs is increasing despite concerns about lack of clinical benefit and return on investment (ROI). In contrast, outcomes from workplace mental health programs, which treat mental health difficulties more directly, remain mostly unknown. Objective: To determine whether participation in an employer-sponsored mental health benefit was associated with improvements in depression and anxiety, workplace productivity, and ROI as well as to examine factors associated with clinical improvement. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cohort study included participants in a US workplace mental health program implemented by 66 employers across 40 states from January 1, 2018, to January 1, 2021. Participants were employees who enrolled in the mental health benefit program and had at least moderate anxiety or depression, at least 1 appointment, and at least 2 outcome assessments. Intervention: A digital platform that screened individuals for common mental health conditions and provided access to self-guided digital content, care navigation, and video and in-person psychotherapy and/or medication management. Main Outcomes and Measures: Primary outcomes were the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 for depression (range, 0-27) score and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale (range, 0-21) score. The ROI was calculated by comparing the cost of treatment to salary costs for time out of the workplace due to mental health symptoms, measured with the Sheehan Disability Scale. Data were collected through 6 months of follow-up and analyzed using mixed-effects regression. Results: A total of 1132 participants (520 of 724 who reported gender [71.8%] were female; mean [SD] age, 32.9 [8.8] years) were included. Participants reported improvements from pretreatment to posttreatment in depression (b = -6.34; 95% CI, -6.76 to -5.91; Cohen d = -1.11; 95% CI, -1.18 to -1.03) and anxiety (b = -6.28; 95% CI, -6.77 to -5.91; Cohen d = -1.21; 95% CI, -1.30 to -1.13). Symptom change per log-day of treatment was similar post-COVID-19 vs pre-COVID-19 for depression (b = 0.14; 95% CI, -0.10 to 0.38) and anxiety (b = 0.08; 95% CI, -0.22 to 0.38). Workplace salary savings at 6 months at the federal median wage was US $3440 (95% CI, $2730-$4151) with positive ROI across all wage groups. Conclusions and Relevance: Results of this cohort study suggest that an employer-sponsored workplace mental health program was associated with large clinical effect sizes for employees and positive financial ROI for employers.

Transformation of Mental Health Care for U.S. Soldiers and Families During the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars: Where Science and Politics Intersect.

The cumulative strain of 14 years of war on service members, veterans, and their families, together with continuing global threats and the unique stresses of military service, are likely to be felt for years to come. Scientific as well as political factors have influenced how the military has addressed the mental health needs resulting from these wars. Two important differences between mental health care delivered during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and previous wars are the degree to which research has directly informed care and the consolidated management of services. The U.S. Army Medical Command implemented programmatic changes to ensure delivery of high-quality standardized mental health services, including centralized workload management; consolidation of psychiatry, psychology, psychiatric nursing, and social work services under integrated behavioral health departments; creation of satellite mental health clinics embedded within brigade work areas; incorporation of mental health providers into primary care; routine mental health screening throughout soldiers' careers; standardization of clinical outcome measures; and improved services for family members. This transformation has been accompanied by reduction in psychiatric hospitalizations and improved continuity of care. Challenges remain, however, including continued underutilization of services by those most in need, problems with treatment of substance use disorders, overuse of opioid medications, concerns with the structure of care for chronic postdeployment (including postconcussion) symptoms, and ongoing questions concerning the causes of historically high suicide rates, efficacy of resilience training initiatives, and research priorities. It is critical to ensure that remaining gaps are addressed and that knowledge gained during these wars is retained and further evolved.

Predicting suicides after psychiatric hospitalization in US Army soldiers: the Army Study To Assess Risk and rEsilience in Servicemembers (Army STARRS).

IMPORTANCE: The US Army experienced a sharp increase in soldier suicides beginning in 2004. Administrative data reveal that among those at highest risk are soldiers in the 12 months after inpatient treatment of a psychiatric disorder. OBJECTIVE: To develop an actuarial risk algorithm predicting suicide in the 12 months after US Army soldier inpatient treatment of a psychiatric disorder to target expanded posthospitalization care. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: There were 53,769 hospitalizations of active duty soldiers from January 1, 2004, through December 31, 2009, with International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification psychiatric admission diagnoses. Administrative data available before hospital discharge abstracted from a wide range of data systems (sociodemographic, US Army career, criminal justice, and medical or pharmacy) were used to predict suicides in the subsequent 12 months using machine learning methods (regression trees and penalized regressions) designed to evaluate cross-validated linear, nonlinear, and interactive predictive associations. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Suicides of soldiers hospitalized with psychiatric disorders in the 12 months after hospital discharge. RESULTS: Sixty-eight soldiers died by suicide within 12 months of hospital discharge (12.0% of all US Army suicides), equivalent to 263.9 suicides per 100,000 person-years compared with 18.5 suicides per 100,000 person-years in the total US Army. The strongest predictors included sociodemographics (male sex [odds ratio (OR), 7.9; 95% CI, 1.9-32.6] and late age of enlistment [OR, 1.9; 95% CI, 1.0-3.5]), criminal offenses (verbal violence [OR, 2.2; 95% CI, 1.2-4.0] and weapons possession [OR, 5.6; 95% CI, 1.7-18.3]), prior suicidality [OR, 2.9; 95% CI, 1.7-4.9], aspects of prior psychiatric inpatient and outpatient treatment (eg, number of antidepressant prescriptions filled in the past 12 months [OR, 1.3; 95% CI, 1.1-1.7]), and disorders diagnosed during the focal hospitalizations (eg, nonaffective psychosis [OR, 2.9; 95% CI, 1.2-7.0]). A total of 52.9% of posthospitalization suicides occurred after the 5% of hospitalizations with highest predicted suicide risk (3824.1 suicides per 100,000 person-years). These highest-risk hospitalizations also accounted for significantly elevated proportions of several other adverse posthospitalization outcomes (unintentional injury deaths, suicide attempts, and subsequent hospitalizations). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: The high concentration of risk of suicide and other adverse outcomes might justify targeting expanded posthospitalization interventions to soldiers classified as having highest posthospitalization suicide risk, although final determination requires careful consideration of intervention costs, comparative effectiveness, and possible adverse effects.