I’ve thought about writing this blog post for a long time. I feel a heavy weight to get this one right, because talking about mental health and substance use benefits is tricky. It’s also my chance to commemorate my 20-year-old nephew who died by suicide on August 11, 2023, and that’s important to me.
Since losing Evan, I feel a more pressing need than ever before to help people struggling with mental health issues. I’ve witnessed firsthand the devastating consequences suicide has on a family, especially a mother. Not long ago, I lost my childhood best friend to undiscussed addiction and mental health issues. This past spring, a friend of my 16-year-old son chose to end his life. And a close friend has been struggling for three years with how to help her young adult son cope with paralyzing depression and anxiety.
I’m not alone. No doubt you’ve also seen or felt the impact of mental health struggles. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 1 in 5 adults experiences mental illness, and 17% of youth aged 6 to 17 experience a mental health disorder. And consider this: Less than half of U.S. adults receive treatment for their condition, and on average there’s an 11-year delay before receiving treatment. That’s right, 11 years. That’s a long time to struggle with a mental health issue without treatment. Think about a diabetic waiting that long for insulin, or someone with high blood pressure not receiving beta-blockers. Sadly, the wait time can be tragic.
Let’s Take a Step Back
I’ve been trying to help organizations communicate about behavioral health benefits for more than 20 years. Back in the day, one large employer I worked with didn’t want to use the words mental health, depression, anxiety, and definitely not suicide in their communications about their employee assistance program (EAP). Words like emotional health and resilience were acceptable terms. Communicating about these benefits wasn’t easy, and watered-down messages are, I’d argue, pretty ineffective.
We’ve come a long way since then, thanks in part to the effects of the COVID pandemic, which normalized discussions about mental health and made organizations realize that they could no longer avoid using words that were once taboo.
Fast Forward to Today
My client, the University of Idaho, made national headlines after four of its students were tragically murdered in late 2022. Understandably, students, faculty, and staff experienced heightened stress and anxiety after this event.
A year after the murders, we conducted virtual focus groups with university employees, and the data showed that 33% of respondents were “not familiar at all” with the university’s mental health benefits and 49% were only “somewhat familiar.” On top of that, 39% of respondents said they would not know where to turn if they needed mental health support.
Additionally, back-end data gathered from a university decision support tool showed that 26% of users said they were struggling with stress and anxiety, and 55% said that while their stress and anxiety levels were manageable, they wanted to learn more about available resources. Overall, this data showed that more than 80% of university employees would be interested in learning more about mental health support.
The university acted quickly to address these numbers. To promote the university’s programs and resources that help employees manage mental health, we developed a campaign that we called Choose to Be Bold. A year after the campaign launched, claims data showed an increase in the number of people seeking mental health care through their medical benefits. Additionally, overall utilization of the university’s employee assistance program also saw growth between Q4 2023 and Q4 2024.
University of Idaho's Choose to Be Bold campaign.
Campaign Takeaways
If you’re inspired to launch your own mental health communications campaign, here are some best practices to consider:
Take a holistic approach to promoting mental health benefits. You likely offer more than just your EAP to help employees and their families improve their mental health. Do you offer wellness benefits, gym membership discounts, or financial benefits? These benefits might also help an employee struggling with stress. Do employees who need to unplug understand their vacation, time-off, and leave-of-absence benefits? And are they aware that they have counseling and inpatient benefits available through their medical benefits? The takeaway here is to think beyond EAP benefits when communicating about mental health support.
Identify a clear call to action. It’s always best practice to have a single call to action in your communications, and when someone is distracted with mental health issues, a clear call to action is more important than ever. In the university’s case, we wanted employees and their dependents to take one important step: Seek out support. We made sure that message was called out in headlines and subheads in all campaign communications.
Find a way for your communications to stand out. For the university, we used attention-grabbing photography—bold close-ups that displayed raw emotion that was really powerful.
Be conscientious about the words you use. Writing about mental health and substance use is nuanced. It’s a disease, not a condition that someone chooses to have, and you don’t want to evoke blame or stigmatize those who are struggling. Take your time, go back and rework your chosen words, proof carefully, and solicit feedback from your team before distributing materials. Avoid some phrases and use others instead:
| Don’t say | Say this instead |
|---|---|
| Committed suicide | Died by suicide |
| Reduce stress | Manage stress |
| Depressive | Person with depression |
| Mental health problem | Mental health issue, mental health condition, or mental illness |
| Substance abuse | Substance use, substance misuse, substance use disorder |
| Drug or alcohol problem | Experiences a substance use disorder |
| Addict, substance abuser, alcoholic | Person with a substance use disorder |
Be open to talking and communicating about mental health. Expand discussions about available mental health resources beyond May (Mental Health Awareness Month). Make it a part of your ongoing dialogue throughout the year, and please don’t sugarcoat your communications.
Do me a favor. Do it for Evan.
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