By Kathy Carlton

Steve is a 54-year-old man with over 20 years of sobriety from alcohol. He was relatively healthy and physically active. He had some degenerative disc disease that required surgery but had managed well for several years with regular activity and stretching.

He began complaining of increasing back pain and couldn’t find relief through stretching or ibuprofen. His primary care physician recommended physical therapy and but after 8 sessions, the pain actually increased a bit more.  An MRI was ordered and the results showed there was no change in his disc disease even as the pain continued to get worse. The next step was a referral to a pain management clinic, but because he is a recovering alcoholic any pain medicine stronger than ibuprofen carried a risk of relapse-related health, relationship, and work issues.

Along the way, and just prior to his pain management appointment, Steve was introduced to the CredibleMind platform offered through his employer which he started to explore for an unrelated issue: How to parent a transgendered child. About a month before his back pain surfaced, his teenager came out to him as transgendered and wanted re-assignment surgery and a name change. All this caught Steve off guard and he was overwhelmed on how to best support his child.

Through the CredibleMind platform, he researched transgender content and selected an evidence-based approach to creating a circle of support and processing his feelings with close friends. Soon after another thing happened: his back pain disappeared.

Turns out Steve’s back pain was caused by a stressful life event that would never have brought him into mental health treatment. He had no idea of the impact his mental well-being was having on his physical health. He never would have called his EAP for the issue he was facing, nor would have benefited from cCBT app for depression or anxiety (these simply weren’t the right tools made available to him). If the core life event issue had not been addressed, Steve would have continued with a chronic pain medication care plan that would have exposed him to potential addiction relapse.

Conservatively we estimated that Steve’s use of the CredibleMind platform and evidence-based self-care saved his employer $35,000 in lost productivity, absenteeism, and pain management costs. And, of course, the savings from relapse avoidance are incalculable.

Kathy Carlton is Director of Business Development at CredibleMind. Here is her contact information to find out more about this story:

• (518) 365-5660
• kathy.carlton@crediblemind.com
• Schedule a meeting with her
• View her LinkedIn profile