Four Yale Department of Psychiatry faculty are co-authors of a paper that examines data from the first-ever peer-reviewed study on workplace mental health to show both clinical and financial outcomes.
The study, published in JAMA Network Open, affirms that a workplace mental health program created by the company Spring Health contributed to a significant reduction in symptoms of depression and anxiety while also increasing workplace productivity for people at companies of all sizes.
Spring Health is a provider of a mental health benefits platform for employers. It was co-founded by Adam Chekroud, PhD, assistant professor adjunct of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and the company’s president. Chekroud is the paper’s senior author.
The study looks at data from 1,132 employees at 66 employers — including small and medium-sized businesses and large employers with more than 3,000 employees — across 404 states from January 2018 to January 2021. Among the findings is that a well-designed and executed employee mental health program can contribute to an increase in productivity, reduced absenteeism, and a positive financial return on investment (ROI) for employers.
Key findings include:
- Nearly 70 percent of participants reliably improved their mental health
- Average time to remission was 5.9 weeks
- 25 percent fewer missed work days
- 24 percent increase in productivity
- Significantly higher job retention as employees were 60% less likely to leave their job
- Average workplace savings of more than $7,000 per participant within the first six months
“Our workplace mental health programs are a win-win for both employees who receive care and their employers,” Chekroud said. “We are enormously proud of the results, which reinforce our strong belief in the value of investing in employee mental health support.”
Other Yale authors include John Krystal, MD, Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Professor of Translational Research and Professor of Psychiatry, of Neuroscience, and of Psychology, and chair of the Yale Department of Psychiatry; Philip Corlett, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry; and Ralitza Gueorguieva, PhD, senior research scientist in biostatistics.