According to the Mental Health Index: Risk of PTSD Up 121% Compared to Before the Pandemic

Risk of PTSD makes employees more susceptible to additional mental health concerns

SAN FRANCISCO and WASHINGTON, April 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Q1 2022 Mental Health Index: U.S. Worker Edition findings show that the risk of PTSD among workers remains alarmingly high; up 121% when compared to before the global pandemic. Further, sustained attention is 47% worse than pre-pandemic; and for men the data is even more concerning – 74% worse than February 2020. These worrisome findings are a stark contrast to additional data that shows improvements in risk for most other mental health concerns. Experts offer words of caution as risk of PTSD makes people more emotionally volatile and increasingly susceptible to stress, anxiety, depression, and addiction. It will take little to impact employees' mental state.

"High PTSD risk levels are a long-lingering effect of the pandemic; and while not totally unexpected, are cause for concern," noted Mathew Mund, CEO, Total Brain. "Employees, while showing great mental health improvements as the world began to open, are highly vulnerable to uncertainty and change right now. The strong correlation between PTSD and other mental health concerns means that employees' and employers' ability to assess and monitor mental health is more important than ever."  

The Mental Health Index: U.S. Worker Edition, powered by Total Brain, a mental health monitoring and support platform, is distributed in partnership with the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, One Mind at Work, and the HR Policy Association and its American Health Policy Institute.

Michael Thompson, National Alliance president and CEO said, "Workers have become even more vulnerable after enduring a period of sustained stress over the past couple of years. Recent turmoil – domestically and globally – has triggered renewed concerns about their mental health and wellbeing."

Margaret Faso, director, Health Care Research and Policy of HR Policy Association said, "Employers know employee wellbeing and benefit offerings are crucial tools as workers adapt to evolving workplaces and expectations post-pandemic. Monitoring employee mental health allows employers to innovate and quickly provide the right programs to address the needs of their employees."

"While the reopening of many facets of the world, including workplaces, has resulted in certain mental health improvements, it is understandable that this reintegration after such a lengthy period in quarantine has also resulted in increased risk of PTSD," said Daryl Tol, executive vice president of One Mind at Work. "Given this higher risk, employers must continue to be hyper-aware of the needs of their workforce and ensure that there are resources and solutions in place to meet those needs with care."

The full Q1 2022 Mental Health Index results can be found here. For additional insights, there will be a complimentary 30-minute webinar on Friday, April 29 at noon Eastern. Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_lwkmMgCZQaCgNBDvL0OA4Q.

To learn more, watch Total Brain Chief Medical Officer Dr. Evian Gordon as he discusses how the Total Brain platform addresses PTSD. For more information about PTSD in the workplace download Trauma and Mental Health in the Workplace. This white paper is the latest work in the One Mind at Work CHRO Insight Series created in partnership with the SHRM Foundation.

Methodology: The Mental Health Index: U.S. Worker Edition contains data drawn from a weekly randomized sample of 500 working Americans taken from a larger universe of Total Brain users. The Index is NOT a survey or a poll. Data is culled from neuroscientific brain assessments using standardized digital tasks and questions from the Total Brain platform. Participants include workers from all walks of life and regions, job levels, occupations, industries, and types of organizations (public vs. private). The brain assessments used to compile the Mental Health Index were taken weekly from the first week of February 2020 until the week starting March 28, 2022, inclusive. The last three weeks of November 29 to December 19, 2021 (inclusive) were compared to the two weeks from March (March 21 to April 3 inclusive).

About Total Brain: Total Brain is based in San Francisco and publicly listed in Sydney, AUS (ASX:TTB). Total Brain is a mental health monitoring and support platform that has more than 1M registered users. Benefits for employers and payers include better mental healthcare access, lower costs, and higher productivity. Benefits for healthcare providers include improved patient outcomes, tracking of evidence-based outcomes across the continuum of care, and a reduction in clinician fatigue. totalbrain.com

About the National Alliance: The National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions (National Alliance) is the only nonprofit, purchaser-led organization with a national and regional structure dedicated to driving health and healthcare value across the country. Its members represent private and public sector, nonprofit, and Taft-Hartley organizations, and more than 45 million Americans spending over $300 billion annually on healthcare. nationalalliancehealth.org

About One Mind at Work: Launched in 2017, One Mind at Work is a global coalition of leaders from diverse sectors who have joined together with the goal of transforming approaches to mental health and addiction. One Mind at Work now includes more than 90 global employers and 18 research and content partners. The coalition covers more than 8 million people under its charter. onemindatwork.org

About HR Policy Association: HR Policy Association is the lead organization representing Chief Human Resource Officers at major employers. The Association consists of over 390 of the largest corporations doing business in the United States and globally, and these employers are represented in the organization by their most senior human resource executive. Collectively, their companies employ more than 10 million employees in the United States, over nine percent of the private sector workforce, and 20 million employees worldwide. These senior corporate officers participate in the Association because of their commitment to improving the direction of human resource policy. hrpolicy.org.

About American Health Policy Institute: American Health Policy Institute is a non-partisan non-profit think tank, started by the HR Policy Foundation, which examines the practical implications of health policy changes through the lens of large employers. The Institute examines the challenges employers face in providing health care to their employees and recommends policy solutions to promote the provision of affordable, high-quality, employer-based health care. The Institute serves to provide thought leadership grounded in the practical experience of America's largest employers. Their mission is to develop impactful strategies to ensure that those purchasing health care can not only bend the cost curve, but break it, by keeping health care cost inflation in line with general inflation. americanhealthpolicy.org.

SOURCE Total Brain