Bell Let’s Talk: A Catalyst for Support and Self-Disclosure, or Corporate Greed?

10.32920/ryerson.14662350.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Harleen Dhami ◽

Yukari Seko

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Research Paper ◽

Health Needs ◽

Mental Health Needs ◽

Major Research ◽

Self Disclosure ◽

Twitter Users ◽

Employee Mental Health

For years, the stigma around depression has caused many to suffer in silence. Since its launch in 2010, the Bell Let’s Talk campaign, started by Canadian telecommunications giant Bell, has aimed to change the narrative around mental health. With Bell coming under fire for overlooking employee mental health needs and even firing staff as a result of requesting time off, this Major Research Paper explores how the 2020 Bell Let’s Talk campaign mobilizes support and selfdisclosure among Twitter users or whether it is simply another instance of corporate profitization. Analyzing tweets one week before, the day of Bell Let’s Talk and one week after, it is suggested that the campaign does not instill a significant increase in supportive tweets on the day of. Rather, it appears that users engage in self-disclosing their experiences with depression and share resources and ways to cope on the day of the initiative. Comparatively, self-disclosure and support does not appear to be sustained beyond the day of the initiative.

Download Full-text

Structuring mental health support for frontline caregivers during COVID-19: lessons from organisational scholarship on unit-aligned support

BMJ Leader ◽

10.1136/leader-2020-000279 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (3) ◽

pp. 124-127

Author(s):

Julia DiBenigno ◽

Michaela Kerrissey

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Health Personnel ◽

Health Needs ◽

Mental Health Needs ◽

Organisational Design ◽

The Us ◽

Mental Health Support ◽

Health Support ◽

Identity Conflicts ◽

Employee Mental Health

BackgroundAlthough the COVID-19 pandemic exposes frontline caregivers to severe prolonged stresses and trauma, there has been little clarity on how healthcare organisations can structure support to address these mental health needs. This article translates organisational scholarship on professionals working in organisations to elucidate why traditional approaches to supporting employee mental health, which often ask employees to seek assistance from centralised resources that separate mental health personnel from frontline units, may be insufficient under crisis conditions. We identify a critical but often overlooked aspect of employee mental health support: how frontline professionals respond to mental health services. In high-risk, high-pressure fields, frontline professionals may perceive mental health support as coming at the expense of urgent frontline work goals (ie, patient care) and as clashing with their central professional identities (ie, as expert, self-reliant ironmen/women).FindingsTo address these pervasive goal and identity conflicts in professional organisations, we translate the results of a multiyear research study examining the US Army’s efforts to transform its mental health support during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We highlight parallels between providing support to frontline military units and frontline healthcare units during COVID-19 and surface implications for structuring mental health supports during a crisis. We describe how an intentional organisational design used by the US Army that assigned specific mental health personnel to frontline units helped to mitigate professional goal and identity conflicts by creating personalised relationships and contextualising mental health offerings.ConclusionAddressing frontline caregivers’ mental health needs is a vital part of health delivery organisations’ response to COVID-19, but without thoughtful organisational design, well-intentioned efforts may fall short. An approach that assigns individual mental health personnel to support specific frontline units may be particularly promising.

Download Full-text

"Are we doing enough": An evaluation of the utilization of employee assistance programs to support the mental health needs of employees during the COVID-19 pandemic

Journal of Insurance Regulation ◽

10.52227/23478.2020 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

C. Darren Brooks ◽

Jeff Ling

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Demographic Factors ◽

Health Needs ◽

Employee Assistance Programs ◽

Employee Assistance ◽

Mental Health Needs ◽

Assistance Programs ◽

Race Ethnicity ◽

Employee Mental Health

The purpose of this study was to examine EAP utilization as a result of the pandemic. Specifically, it looked at whether the EAP utilization has increased in a post-pandemic environment, whether demographic factors age, gender, or race/ethnicity influence EAP utilization, and how employers promote EAP benefits to support employee mental health needs during the pandemic.

Download Full-text