Employee Mental Health with Pine Rest

Jean Holthaus, Director of Employee Assistance Programs at Pine Rest joins us to discuss employee mental health. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And this is West Michigan's Morning News. May Mental Health
Awareness Month. Pine Rest Health Services and Secure Environment Consultants
are teaming up to help organizations prioritize employee well being.
A couple segments on that this morning, and first and
foremost with the director of Employee Assistance Programs at pine Rest,

(00:22):
Jean Holdhouse joins us, thank you so much for taking
the time.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Today, thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Let's start with resources. If you are maybe even a
small company right that doesn't have the big HR departments
that other employees have at their discretion, talk to us
a little bit about what's available out there that folks
can tap into it.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Pine Rest sure even small companies their owners can look
at purchasing an EAP. We don't limit our EAPs to
large organizations. We sell EAPs to small organizations. And if
you're an employee at a company, oftentimes important to just
check and see if your organization has an EAP because

(01:03):
it's oftentimes an underutilized resource that has a lot of
benefits that you can use for free, but you got
to know that it's there, so ask about what benefits
you have.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
Geen, I'm curious, are we to the point now where
it will become more I should say commonplace. You know,
every year you're asked to do a physical right with
your doctor, usually for your health insurance and so forth.
What about a mental checkup?

Speaker 2 (01:29):
I don't think it ever hurts anything. It's not usually
a mandated thing. You can't mandate someone go to treatment.
But I don't think it ever hurts. If you have concerns,
to check in. And that's where using your EAP can
be helpful because it's a free resource. You can check
in with a counselor for free, and you don't have
to wait until you have a problem that is huge.
You can say, I don't know is my teenager having angst?

(01:51):
Or is this depression or anxiety? And you can check
up on some of those things.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
If you have an employee, or maybe you are someone
who thinks you need some urgent psychiatric care. We talked
about it when it first came on the scene. That
is available at pine Rest. Talk to us about how
that works.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Sure, it works just like any other urgent care center.
You can walk through the front door and just be seen.
You don't have to You can call ahead for an appointment,
but you don't have to just like at an urgent
care center, you can walk in and they can assess,
like what's going on and what would be the best
intervention in a right now sort of I don't want
to wait two weeks for an appointment kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
We're talking the next hour of the program about your
partner in this program with Secure Environment Consultants. Should there
be an emergency at work that folks need to be
prepared for, but as a boss or a fellow employee,
how can I help? And what are some of the
warning signs for an employee who may be in real trouble?

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Sure, what you're looking for is changes in behavior from
their norm, and that means we have to kind of
be aware of the people working around us and for
those changes. People when they're struggling with mental health tend
to either get quieter and withdraw into themselves and kind
of try to disappear a little bit, or they get bigger,

(03:11):
they get louder, they get more angry, And so we're
looking for those changes, and then we're looking at creating
spaces and having the conversations, Hey, I'm worried about you.
Something seems to be getting more difficult, and not being
afraid to have those conversations.

Speaker 3 (03:27):
Is a major life change something to be careful with
as far as a trigger, I mean, what are those triggers.
I'm looking at it from a parent perspective and maybe
also just from an adult perspective, you know, with your
spouse watching something or some event that happens in life
as a trigger to maybe hey, depression or something to starting.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yep, anytime you have those sorts of life change events,
something that stresses the system in any way, and it
can even be a positive stressor like someone gets engaged
or they get a job promotion. Anything that stresses the
body can cause the body to begin to experience changes
in the chemical balances within the brain, and that can
trigger a mental health issue for someone. So we want

(04:07):
to particularly at those sorts of times be more aware.
But it can happen even without a stressor like that.
So we're just watching for changes in behavior primarily, but
those times when there's a change in a life circumstance
that heightens the risk.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
You'll find out more at Pinereest dot org. We'll get
a link to that in the podcast section at woodradio
dot com, where this conversation will live. Director of Employee
assistance programs at pine Rest gene Holdhouse. Thanks for your
time today.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Thank you, Wood.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
Radio News Time Now seven forty one. That's traffic and
weather on the ones.