Trend: Despite concerns, large US employers deploy apps, AI chatbots, other digital tools to boost workplace mental health

Employers Are Offering a New Worker Benefit: Wellness Chatbots (The Wall Street Journal): More workers feeling anxious, stressed or blue have a new place to go for mental-health help: a digital app. Chatbots that hold therapist-like conversations and wellness apps that deliver depression and other diagnoses or identify people at risk of self-harm are snowballing across employers’ healthcare benefits. “The demand for counselors is huge, but the supply of mental-health providers is shrinking,” said J. Marshall Dye, chief executive officer of PayrollPlans, a Dallas-based provider of benefits software used by small and medium-size businesses, which began providing access to a chatbot called Woebot in November. … About a third of U.S. employers offer a “digital therapeutic” for mental-health support, according to a survey of 457 companies this past summer by professional services company WTW. An additional 15% of the companies were considering adding such an offering in 2024 or 2025 … Yet some researchers say there isn’t sufficient evidence the programs work, and the varied security and safety practices create a risk that private information could be leaked or sold. 2023 survey among large US employers: Survey: Employers support growing demand for mental health services (Mercer): American employers are taking action to improve the health and wellness of their employees. That is among the findings of a report that explores what employers are doing to address the men...
Source: SharpBrains - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Brain/ Mental Health Peak Performance Technology & Innovation CBT depression digital app digital therapeutic healthcare benefits Koa Health Mental-Health self-harm wellness chatbot Woebot worker benefit Source Type: blogs