Mental Health in the Workplace: A Public Health Summit

On October 20, 2016, The Department of Mental Health and the Institute for Health and Productivity Studies at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in conjunction with The Luv u Project, Inc., hosted a public health summit on workplace mental health.

More workers are absent from work due to stress than due to physical illness or injury. One in four adults in the United States of working age will suffer from mental illness or substance abuse, costing employers $80-$100 billion annually from these treatable disorders.

This Public Health Summit brought key stakeholders together from academia, industry and government to examine barriers to research on workplace mental health, implementation of workplace interventions and services and best practices for overcoming barriers to research and interventions. The program focused on solutions to improve the workplace environment, work productivity and cost efficiency.

View Program

Speakers included:

Philip S. Wang, MD, DrPH, Director of Research for the American Psychiatric Association
The Cost and Benefits of Workplace Mental Health: Depression
A prolific and highly cited scientist whose areas of expertise include depression in the workplace, comparative effectiveness, mental health care reform, and health disparities.

K. Andrew Crighton, MD, Vice President, Chief Medical Officer of Prudential Financial, Inc.
How Prudential Promotes Employee, Organizational, and Community Mental Health
Leader in corporate health and wellness; accomplishments include enhancing employee productivity through promotion of the five (physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and financial) dimensions of health.

Kim Jinnett, PhD, Executive Vice President of the Integrated Benefits Institute
The Value of Employee Health for Organizational Health: Connecting Mental Health, Productivity and Business Value
Expert in workforce health and productivity, quality of life, mental health and organizational leadership and change, and organizational and community effects on individual outcomes.

Peter Wald, MD, Enterprise Medical Director and Director of USAA’s Wellness Program
Emotional Wellness as a Core Element in Building a Culture of Health at the Workplace – The USAA Story
Responsible for conceptualization and implementation of award winning wellness strategy programs and for targeted health and disability interventions to improve employee health and productivity.

Victor J. Strecher, PhD, Professor of Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of Michigan School of Public Health
The Power of Purpose in Promoting Mental Health in the Workplace
Founder of The Center for Health Communications Research at UM, helped found HealthMedia Inc., the first company to allow large health plans and employers to cost effectively encourage and support healthy behavior change. His research is focused on finding and maintaining purpose in life.

Richard Frank, PhD, the Margaret T. Morris Professor of Health Economics at Harvard Medical School
How Government and Business Can Work Together to Promote Mental Health in the Workplace: An Insider’s Perspective
Former Assistant Secretary for Health and Human Services and coauthor of Better but Not Well, whose research focus is on the economics of mental health and substance abuse care.