Brain Health: Calling All Champions
TL;DR
* Nearly 20% of us (not including our families) are impacted by brain disorders, but we aren’t connected with one another.
* Connecting with each other means we can unite to make a change.
*We need your help as a storyteller and a member of the workforce to Champion to create those connections.
“She had been sitting across from me the entire time, dealing with the same issue, but I had no idea. I want to see that change.” — Colorado HR Manager
People with a brain disorder (mental illness) deserve to live openly with hope for their future. We are using our combined knowledge and experience to create a guide for individuals and a blueprint for companies to help us to do just that.
My colleagues and I at Sigmend set out with one mission in mind, to reduce the death and disability caused by brain disorders. We’ve conducted hundreds of interviews and iterated over as many possible solutions with leaders in the non-profit, education, advocacy, treatment, and business arenas as well as wide range of impacted individuals.
We found fantastic research, successful programs, motivated individuals, 80% successful treatments, and growing support from the business community.
At first glance, it would seem we have everything we need to confront the problem, yet the fact remains that the prevalence and severity of brain disorders is on the rise. Suicide is now the second leading cause of death for ages 10–34 in the United States.
Through our investigations we found two major reasons why we, as a community, haven’t been successful in handling the brain health problem;
1.) individuals don’t talk about it, and
2.) even though more and more companies want to help, they often don’t know how.
1. The Guidebook
For those who are newly diagnosed with a brain disorder, it’s not easy to find practical, relevant information. It’s hard to find answers to questions ranging from how to tell my friends when I have too much anxiety to go out for the night, to what do I do when my child is released from an involuntary, 72 hour hold following a suicide attempt?
We focus programs on individuals suffering in silence, but what if the best way to reach them is through the much larger population of individuals with a brain disorder and their loved ones who are succeeding in silence? While it’s true the majority of those individuals aren’t experts in psychiatry or behavioral health, every single one of them is an expert in their own story.
We may not be able to tell others what they should do, but we can certainly tell others about our own relevant experiences. We can share how we told our friends about anxiety and how it went. We can tell others about the time when our child was released from a 72 hour hold.
As we add our stories, we begin to create a Guidebook with increasing specificity until we have hundreds of stories answering every common question; where a single father can view stories from a dozen other fathers with shared experiences and learn from their successes and failures.
We may not always be able to answer a question accurately as individuals, but collectively, as a community, we most certainly will.
2. The Blueprint
Stories and understanding can go a long way towards addressing the problem, but they must be matched with resources and support. Companies are the biggest lever for change.When a company is changed so people living with brain disorders can live openly, with hope for their future, it’s a domino effect. You impact individual employees, their children, spouses, and other family members. You impact the day to day life of each of those people, their futures, and the future of your company. Companies who emphasize brain health reap the rewards from recruitment, performance, loyalty, and knowing is just the right thing to do. [link to blueprint blog post]
Yet, these companies are facing an uphill battle. 64% of employees believe discussing their mental health with their employers could or would have negative consequences. Asked the same question about physical health, only 22% responded that it would or could have negative consequences.
As a result, companies have very little to inform themselves in choosing programs, policies, and resources to help. Our team found a lot of amazing programs and services for fostering brain health in a company, but not many employees are aware of them. The most common approach is to offer an Employee Assistance Program, but people rarely use them. In fact, utilization rates are often only around 5–10%.
Currently, there is no existing blueprint for a company to follow to build an environment to help their employees manage and/or overcome their brain disorders and improve their brain health in general, but that’s about to change.
With the help of vendors and non-profit providers and Champions like you (we hope!), we showcase a wide range of solutions, from yoga to health care benefits, to help with everything from severe, chronic disorders to general wellness.
It allows Champions to present leadership with a clear plan, including examples of what’s worked for similar companies or situations. Read more about the Blueprint here.
We will do more than just find solutions in the Blueprint. By sharing our successes and failures of the programs, policies, and treatment resources within our own company, we will expand the blueprint to include the best practices of hundreds and thousands of companies.
To all those who are fighting a brain disorder and winning…
To the family, friends, and coworkers who fight alongside them…
To the depressed, the anxious, and the manic…
To those who know first hand both how terrible it can be, and also why it’s worth enduring the pain…
It’s time to stand up and assert that disorders of the brain are no less tangible than those of the heart, lungs, or any other human organ.
The pain is just as tangible to the person who’s sick and the impact as imposing on those who support them.
When a co-worker is diagnosed with cancer, it’s normal for them to receive cards, balloons, and casseroles from the rest of the office. When a co-worker is diagnosed with bipolar, it’s normal for them to keep it a secret from the rest of the office. It’s time for that change.
At the end of the day, the fundamental obstacle to progress in brain disorders is stigma. Fear is a powerful force preventing us from addressing this problem head on. The best way to change that is to share our knowledge and experience. After studying the problem, we’ve already learned one really important lesson to share:
Regarding brain health, there’s far more reason for hope than fear.
It’s time to champion the cause. It’s time to live with our brain disorder openly with hope for our future. So speak up, make a plan, and become a part of the community making better lives for those with brain disorders.
And if you need some help getting started, that’s what we’re here for: hello@sigmend.com
First posted on sigmend.com
