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Top Trends EAP Managers:
The need to eliminate the stigma of mental illness remains. The healthcare industry is in the midst of great change, from the advent of e-health to increased consumerism and heated competition, but nowhere will the transformation be more evident than mental health, a mental health advocate insists.
"No area of healthcare will see more change in the next decade than mental health," predicted Laurie Flynn, executive director of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.
Flynn cited the following key mental healthcare trends:
Sophisticated electronic imaging techniques that researchers use to see into the living brain will enable scientists to discern areas of the brain that malfunction during specific illnesses and soon may enable treatments to be targeted more effectively.
º In the near term, severe depression will be treated more effectively, and perhaps result in a reduction of the rising suicide rate.
º Better targeted treatment and a new generation of antipsychotic drugs offer hope for better outcomes for people with schizophrenia, the most frequent diagnosis among the nationÍs homeless population.
º New science will allow policy-makers to prioritize between serious brain disorders and more ordinary mental health problems, such as stress. Health insurance parity laws in many states already make this distinction.
º Policy-makers will demand greater accountability for hundreds of millions of dollars that now support the public mental healthcare system. A "new image of mental health" will emerge, focusing on early recognition, effective treatment, rehabilitation and recovery for most patients, Flynn predicted.
º The Internet is helping overcome the stigma of mental illness, she said. It preserves anonymity, while providing information about treatment options, current research, screening tests, online question-and-answer sessions with practitioners and virtual support groups.
º New medications are being advertised directly to millions of potential consumers, further changing the balance of power in the physician-patient relationship. Consumer demand will remain a force in a highly competitive market. More aggressive advertising of new products can be expected, she said.
Diversity issues will see increased emphasis. Diversity in the workplace has taken on new importance as changing economies prompt many companies to downsize and restructure into flatter, more decentralized entities.
The result is todayÍs corporations are built around groups that must find answers to novel and complicated business issues. These teams bring together diverse groups of people who incorporate a variety of backgrounds, ideas and personalities.
A poll by the Society for Human Resources Management and CareerJournal.com revealed those who hire and those who seek employment agree that diversity initiatives have made organizations more successful (61 percent and 53 percent, respectively).
The majority of both groups of respondents (60 percent of HR professionals and 52 percent of jobseekers) agreed diversity is an important consideration during the selection process and agreed even more that considering diversity in hiring a candidate is appropriate.
"It is clear that companies must not only make diversity a priority in their workplace, they must also communicate the effectiveness of their diversity programs to the work force," said SHRM President and CEO Michael R. Losey, SPHR, CAE. "Although most jobseekers prefer to work for an organization that makes diversity a priority, a substantial number of people still believe their organization is not committed to workplace diversity."
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