Ronald C. Kessler, PhD, an HCP professor of health care policy, studies many aspects of mental health policy. In recent work, Kessler and colleagues have been researching the effects of depression on employees’ productivity in the workplace.
“Through several epidemiological studies on the costs to employers of mental health problems,” says Kessler, “we’ve found that depression is one of the most impairing and costly conditions to employers, yet it is one of the most undertreated.”
Indeed, Kessler’s studies have shown that depression is a major factor in people’s inability to work or carry out their everyday activities—a loss of “role performance” that affects some 1.3 million adults nationwide and results in some 86 million days and tens of billions of dollars in lost productivity annually. For employers, depression is among the most costly of all health problems.
“Employers have recently begun to turn their focus from the costs of treating mental disorders to the costs of not treating these illnesses and have been asking themselves whether they can afford not to provide best practices treatment,” says Kessler. “In our research we hoped to show the difference treatment for depression makes in people’s lives—and the difference it makes to employers.”
Kessler and colleagues partnered with United Behavioral Health, the largest US mental health insurance company, working with its corporate clients to evaluate the effects on workplace productivity of an outreach and treatment program for employees who suffered from depression. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that a systematic program to identify and treat depression in workers reaped rewards both in their clinical outcomes and in their workplace productivity, including fewer days of work missed and greater job retention. The researchers are expanding the study, working with groups in Australia and Canada that are replicating the study, and are in discussions with the Pan-American Health Organization, which is developing replications in Latin America.
“I can show employers that real dollars are going out with loss of productivity due to depression, and dollars are coming in with the outreach and treatment approach,” says Kessler. “We view addressing depression in employees as a human capital investment, like trainings. When it comes to employer costs, the real question is: Can they afford not to treat these disorders?”
Read the press release from the National Institute of Mental Health, which funded the study. Also read a recent HCP news article on Kessler's study on lost role performance.
