Wellness & Well-being Highlights August 12
Wellness & Well-being Highlights
for the
Week of August 12, 2024
This week’s edition of our Worker Wellness & Well-being blog offers construction firms an opportunity to consider how crisis management plays a role in attracting and retaining employees—to how recent research on ecstasy was manipulated with regards to suicidal ideation—to why First Responders across the USA are expressing their concerns about Congress’ moves to ban (better performing) Chinese drones. This week I would like to take this opportunity to take a closer look at the unchecked power of health insurance firms. This past week, the WSJ ran an article regarding how claims for mental health leave were disallowed more than those for physical health leave.
For those of you who have attended my one or more of my wellness trainings, my apologies for plowing old ground. On many occasions, I have expressed my distain for COVID…after all, COVID took the lives of five people I knew and dearly loved. However, I aways qualify this statement with what I found to be positive as a result of this devastating pandemic. First and foremost, as I may have noted in this blog months ago, in an odd way, COVID was good for Mental Health. Why/how? Few of us, if any, can honestly say that in no way, shape, or form was our MH impacted by COVID. I firmly believe that COVID placed MH squarely on each of our dinner tables. Thus, making it safer (or least more normal) to talk about a once highly taboo topic…internally or externally! My heart goes out to those of you who had to balance getting up to speed on K-12 online learning while ensuring their elderly parents/grandparents could stay virtually connected in order to avoid the potential distress of isolation. Meanwhile, those of us who had health insurance plans that provided mental health benefits (in addition to physical health benefits) were soon to find out that a law known as Mental Health Parity would nudge the healthcare industry to pivot beyond the delivery of virtual doctor visits. In essence, COVID & Parity forced the HC industry into creating secure platforms for people to receive mental health care online.
As we move into a “post-COVID” era, MH remains a battleground for insurance firms, employers, and employees. Too often, people are “judged” by their looks while others apply personal experiences to unrelated situations: 1) If one cannot see a “physical” harm then the person in question must be OK (We can see a broken arm in a cast and know it takes about 6-8 weeks to heal. Have you heard the phrase: Invisible wounds of war?); 2) It is difficult to apply a finite set of rules to a person’s MH issues since NONE of us were exposed to the exact same environments growing up (Why does one Vet die by suicide as a result of multiple head injuries (via IED blasts) vs another servicemember from the same unit/patrol?). Sadly, these misguided attitudes are still utilized by the companies/managers calling the shots and continue to negatively impact people with various forms of mental illness (often more than one: i.e., SUD and PTSD)…who rightfully deserve assistance. Let’s not confuse the issues surrounding objective vs subjective measures with the need to protect one another!
Extreme Heat / Climate Change / Worker’s Death
Big Fines: Unprotected trenches
Construction Falls Increased 50%
Construction Suicides & Crisis Management
Re-examining Drunk Driving’s BAC Limit
Discrimination: Disability pay for MH Leave?
How Child Abuse Impacted One Adult
Update: NFL & Guardian Helmets
More on Bangladesh’s Garment Factories
First Responders / Congress / Chinese Drones
STL State of the Workforce Report (2024)
Addressing skilled labor demands
Upcoming webinars, etc.:
Preventing Suicides in the Construction Industry
OSHA: Supporting Employee MH (Aug 26)
Psychological Impact of Euthanasia (Aug 28)
International Overdose Awareness Day (Aug 31)
Ag Health & Safety Week (Sept 16-20)
Fatal Injury Trends in Construction
NOTE: The links provided above are for informational purposes only. None of these serve as a substitute for medical advice one should obtain from his/her own primary care physician and/or mental health professional. Please contact johngaal@moaflcio.org with related questions or comments.
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