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Newest Employee Health Partner: Harvard Health PublicationsWATCH: At #HealthMatters2016, we announced our newest employee health partner: Harvard Health Publications. Together, we’ll work to develop an educational platform that builds the capacity of employers and employees to improve health and wellness within the workplace.
Posted by Clinton Foundation on Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Health care consumers in the U.S. face an increasing financial burden and more complex choices about their health care than ever before. At the same time, employers struggle to maximize the value of health care benefits and ensure that employees are as healthy and productive as possible.
Harvard Health Publications, a publishing division of Harvard Medical School, aims to empower employers and employees with the knowledge and insight to make better health care decisions. HHP draws on the knowledge of more than 11,000 physicians, researchers and other faculty members at HMS to provide current, authoritative and accessible health information to a global audience.
“At a time when more risk and responsibility are shifting to the health care consumer, we believe in educating people wherever we can—including in the workplace, where 150 million people in the U.S. get their health insurance,” said Gregory Curfman, HHP editor in chief.
As part of its ongoing effort to help employers successfully manage behavioral health issues in the workplace, HHP is combining its expertise in research, clinical medicine and adult learning with the programming reach of the Clinton Health Matters Initiative (CHMI), an initiative of the Clinton Foundation that brings employers and communities across the country together to improve health and well-being.
One area of focus for HHP is behavioral health, which affects an estimated 18.5 percent of the U.S. population each year. Individual struggles with mental illness and substance abuse can have consequences for employers as well; in one study, HMS researchers determined that lost productivity due to anxiety and depression costs $485,000 per 1,000 employees per year.
In many cases, effective treatment options are available, yet employees do not always seek them out or benefit from them because of stigma, a desire to manage these conditions themselves, difficulty finding a provider and other persistent barriers to care.
This partnership will share its collection of educational materials on a variety of behavioral wellness topics and partner with employers to integrate these materials into new or existing employee benefits programs.
Goals of the partnership include educating employees about behavioral health risk factors, prevention, impacts on physical health, evidence-based treatment options and outcomes, self-care and methods to overcome barriers to getting care.
Materials will likely range from videos featuring clinical experts to interactive self-assessments and can be tailored to assist employees, their coworkers or their supervisors in managing behavioral health issues in the workplace, Curfman said.
“We hope that HHP can provide actionable, empowering information that business partners will want to pilot in different parts of the country,” said Curfman. “Then, when these programs are taken to scale, we can gather data on use, efficacy and outcomes to confirm that employees are receiving the behavioral health treatment they need and employers are fostering a happier, healthier, more productive workforce.”
