How Corporate America Can Solve the U.S.’ Mental Health Crisis

Happy Thanksgiving week! This year’s celebrations might look considerably different from years past, but we can all find solace in the fact that one thing about Thanksgiving will never change: Stove Top stuffing is the best stuffing.

This week’s Business Casual episodes are some of the most important I think we’ve ever produced. We’re going deep into the world of mental health...and not just how we talk about it, but how businesses both further that conversation and profit off of it.

Why now: Not only are we heading into the holidays (a notoriously fraught time for our relationships with friends and family and, consequently, for our mental health) in 2020 (no explanation needed), but we’re also experiencing a boom in startups eager to fix what’s long been a broken and outdated mental healthcare system.

On Tuesday, you’ll hear from Stephen Hays, founder of What If Ventures, a fund focused on investing in early-stage mental health and addiction recovery startups. Stephen’s moving account of his own mental health struggles will completely reshape the way you think about the space as an investment opportunity.

On Thursday, we’re taking the entrepreneur’s perspective with Ariela Safira, founder and CEO of the therapy startup Real. Ariela sums up what Covid has done to our mental health and how it’s created business opportunities. She’s also got some...choice words on why our broken mental healthcare system has thoroughly lacked innovation for generations now.

These interviews 1) stopped me in my tracks and forced me to recognize how dreadfully and dangerously inept mental healthcare in the U.S. is right now and 2) made me realize there’s something we can do about it. Let’s get into it.

How Corporate America Can Solve the U.S.’ Mental Health Crisis

Ask almost any startup founder why they endeavored to launch a business and they’ll tell you about a problem that needed solving. The drive to address pain points is at the heart of our corporate world.

Why, then, have so few been able to come remotely close to rectifying our crippling mental healthcare problem here in the U.S.? It’s because the biggest, most influential companies have colossally failed to make mental health a priority, and instead have passed the figurative baton to smaller upstarts.

In doing so, corporate America is leaving behind hundreds of thousands of people. Sure, we have Calm and Headspace and Talkspace and the like...but no member of that (very young) cohort of therapy apps has been able to apply the scale necessary to effect widespread change.

And change passed the necessary mile marker ages ago:

• The National Institute of Mental Health estimates mental illnesses affect tens of millions of people in the U.S. each year. But only half of those people receive treatment.
• Even before Covid, which drastically magnified and amplified emotional distress, 300 million people globally suffered from depression and anxiety every year.

It’s time to do something. Something big. And who better to do something big than someone big?

The responsibility of offering people the mental health support and treatment they need must fall on corporate incumbents—the bigger the better. Calm had 50 employees last year; Walmart has 1.5 million in the U.S. alone. Which do you think can better jumpstart a long-overdue conversation about mental health at work? 

Companies, especially the large ones, can’t not invest in the mental health of their employees. Let me explain why, exactly, that is.

First, this is an example of a problem private industry can solve faster than public government. As Stephen will point out Tuesday, most presidents in modern history have attempted to improve mental health resources, treatments, and conversations during their administrations. And almost all have in fact failed.

Struggling with mental health is a problem that affects millions of people. Historically, the government doesn’t have the resources or capacity for nuanced execution to accomplish change that vast.

• “I think the government has a role to play in opening up a free market where people can build solutions for profit that can be sustainable...so that everyone can have access. I just don't think the government alone can do this,” Stephen told me.

The private sector’s entire raison d'être is to do the things the government can’t do well—it’s in their blood. Addressing mental healthcare shortcomings should be no different.

Plus, it would behoove corporations to prioritize employees’ mental health, because emotionally healthy employees who feel supported in their workplaces do better work.

The evidence, c/o the World Health Organization:

• “Workplaces that promote mental health and support people with mental disorders are more likely to reduce absenteeism, increase productivity, and benefit from associated economic gains.”
• Those economic gains could be meaningful—depression and anxiety cost the global economy some $1 trillion per year in lost productivity.

The sad reality, though, is that even that trillion-dollar number isn’t enough to convince employers to take action. A recent survey of 256 companies found that only 53% were providing special emotional and mental health programs for their workers in the post-Covid world.

That’s not enough—that 53% should be 100%. 

Promoting mental health and supporting those with mental disorders isn’t that difficult...but it is more involved than unlimited paid time off. Some ideas:

• Free or subsidized therapy and counseling for employees and their families
• Flexible work schedules, including mental health days
• Discounted or free memberships for mental health apps like Headspace

That last one especially shines a bright light on a massive white space: B2B partnerships. For a fledgling mental health startup, inking a deal with a major bank, retailer, or healthcare provider to offer services to their employees is like striking gold.

And one successful unicorn mental health startup will breed more. The more, the better...each one is another chance for someone struggling with their mental health to get the unwavering support they need.

The bottom line: It shouldn’t come as a shock that offering genuine, accessible mental health resources is the morally right thing for employers to do. But in case that’s not enough, it’s also strategically the right thing to do. Helping people pays in spades.

Start listening now right here.