By Leo Bierman, MS, LaC

The pandemic is having a major impact on mental health—businesses and organizations have the positioning and capacity to fill crucial gaps in mental health care. A CDC report found that in June 2020, anxiety disorders in Americans was 3x that of 2019, and depressive disorders were 4x that of 2019. 1 out of 10 people started or increased substance abuse because of COVID-19, and 2x as many people seriously considered suicide in the month of June in 2020 as compared to the entire year of 2018. These numbers are grim and should serve as a call to action.

This crisis is finding its way into all aspects of our society, and if you are responsible for a business or organization, it is likely impacting your team as well, whether because of their own mental health, or that of their families.

Mental health is a symptom of the health of our systems. Systems can be on any scale, from a family, to an individual business or organization, to larger scales like a nation, an ecosystem, or our global human society. When one part of a system is dysfunctional, the entire system is affected, and will soon manifest that dysfunction, often beginning in places or people where there are the least protection and support. If the dysfunction continues, it eventually spreads to affect even the most privileged parts or people in the system. These data tell us that mental health is a weak link in our systems of support and that we need to double down on correcting this.

Seeing such a rapid decline in mental health should be a wake-up call to all of us, especially those who oversee and are responsible for teams. If nothing is done, expect to see ramifications in your organization, and expect those to continue to increase over the coming months.

A crisis like this also offers a great opportunity for change. This situation provides a unique opportunity for leaders to make bold moves toward a more sustainable and regenerative business culture that can shift our collective future in a direction that everyone will benefit from.

From here, we have two basic options:

1. We can either continue to watch mental health decline, see increasingly grim statistics, and watch as people suffer silently during a time when suffering is already so great.
2. Or we can choose to embrace this as an opportunity to begin to fundamentally support those in our care, and make high quality of life and mental/emotional flourishing the standard.

Leaders who pave the way with culture shifts, re-orientation of values, and new structures of support can help establish a solid foundation for a better post-pandemic world. If you are responsible for others, consider asking yourself a few simple questions to start:

• Do I know what my team is struggling with, and what they need to thrive?
• How can I learn more about their challenges and needs?
• How am I prioritizing the mental health of my team? How can I do better?
• What are the next concrete steps I can take to support the needs of my team?

When creating structures of support, it can be helpful to consult mental health experts experienced in creating such structures. Every organization is different, and the needs of your team might be unique. There are also many digital hubs for mental health resources designed for just this purpose, and any one of them can be a place to start.  CredibleMind is one of these and provides diverse resources that can serve as a basis of support for teams and their families.

Organizations and businesses can help fill the gaps in our larger systemic deficit of mental healthcare, and in so doing, can make a huge impact on the lives and well-being of those in their care. Every leader has an essential role in the movement to reorient values and prioritize mental and emotional health, and every step you take matters.