PsyLink Employee Wellness Program

Mental health

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

The United States is in a mental health crisis. At least a fifth of the U.S. population struggles with mental health condition(s) and 76% of employees have reported at least 1 mental health symptom, but over half (55.2%) do not obtain mental health treatment. About 17 million American employees suffering from mental illness do not receive mental health care, a treatment gap that is increasing. Employee Wellness Programs (EWPs) are behavioral health programs that assist employees with issues including work pressure, emotional distress, mental illness, substance abuse, relational problems, and life transitions, providing mental health screenings, short-term counseling, and case management. EWPs improve employee morale, productivity, and safety. However, EWPs are generally unaffordable to small businesses, which make up 99.9% of U.S. companies. 85% of corporations with more than 500 workers provide EWPs, but only 27% of companies with less than 50 employees have EWPs due to cost.

Since 2020, the Whittier Counseling Center has offered the PsyLink Employee Wellness Program (EWP) to small businesses throughout Los Angeles County. Our goal is to address the treatment gap that disproportionately impacts small business employees, as this sector is far less likely to have access to EWP mental health services than employees of large corporations.
PsyLink will have 3 major components. These will include mental health support, training, and consulting services. All three services will be catered to small businesses and their workforce.
Mental Health Support: All participants will have access to mental health screening services and referrals, as well as up to 3 counseling sessions with a clinician via secured video conference calls or in-person. Our clinicians will also provide virtual or in-person Psychological First Aid during the aftermath of traumatic events such as the death of an employee, an industrial accident, or a violent crime.
Training Services: We will provide up to 3 virtual or in-person 1-hour professional training sessions on topics related to healthy work environments and mental health.
Consulting Services: Our clinicians will be available on an as-needed basis via phone or video conference calls to business owners and administrators on issues related to mental health and healthy work environments.

The services mentioned above will help to address the mental health gap in multiple ways. They will help to increase mental health awareness, increase access to mental health services, improve people’s quality of life, and create healthier work environments. Employees benefitting from the program will have affordable and convenient access to professional mental health services from clinicians, linking those struggling with mental health issues with appropriate services and healthy coping skills, which will ultimately decrease social ills such as homelessness, incarceration, and mortality rates. Those employers who contract with PsyLink will also benefit, decreasing their liability, improving employee morale, promoting safe work environments, and boosting productivity. Our goal is to continue growing this program over time, with seed money from LA2050 helping build awareness and initial buy-in to the program to provide proof of concept.

The Workplace Outcome Suite (WOS) will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the PsyLink Program. The WOS uses pre- and post-surveys to collect specific outcome data, examining key aspects of workplace functioning: presentism, absenteeism, workplace distress, and life satisfaction. Clinical documentation and service utilization records will also be used to collect relevant data related to the implementation of key program activities, as well as main outcomes.
We hope to continue growing this program, using this opportunity from LA2050 to boost the program’s membership and visibility during this formative period. Our hope is for early adopters secured through this seed funding from LA2050 will act as change agents to help spread awareness and demonstrate proof of concept so that we can secure more clients and scale up operations. Other opinion leaders that we will approach to help promote the program based on this success are chambers of commerce and government officials.