Disability | Focusing on total wellbeing and innovation
In disability management, employers need to put in place measures that take into account the total wellbeing of their employees to facilitate their recovery. Our expert’s analysis.
Published on May 1, 2024
By: Cheryl Nicholson
Senior Director, Modernization
Group Benefits and Retirement Solutions
iA Financial Group
With 40% of sick leaves since the COVID-19 pandemic1 attributed to a mental health disorder, the strain on resources across Canada is daunting. In Ontario, for example, requests for support have increased 50% since 20232.
In this context, employers are looking for ways to support their staff when it comes to mental health, and focusing on mental, physical and financial wellbeing can pay big dividends.
I’d argue that one of the ways to achieve this is to approach disability management along a continuum of health care.
An integrated approach
A Health Care Continuum looks at total wellbeing, a cornerstone of employee satisfaction, through prevention, early intervention, effective treatment, sustainable recovery, and rehabilitation support. We seek to strengthen that continuum through wellness options on the product side, and disability services and solutions3.
Having an employee go on disability strains colleagues, impacts productivity, and poses a significant concern for employers. At the same time, employers need their workforce to be happy and healthy to deliver best results. Employers want to preserve employees at work, but need to ensure they have access to the tools they need to be healthy and productive, and that calls for an integrated approach.
À la carte solutions
I think organizations and insurance carriers must offer a variety of à la carte solutions to support employees while they’re still in the workplace. Someone suffering from a sub-threshold condition might utilize tools such as the Employee Family Assistance Program or virtual Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or the health navigation platform to get more information about prescription drugs, for example.
We’re seeing those who do go off work suffering with more complex types of medical conditions, and this underscores the need for a proactive insurer who is ready to step up and optimize recovery.
We saw a discontinuity of care, particularly post-pandemic with the medical backlog, where treatment stalled and prolonged disability leaves. With our case management style, we utilize early assessments and fill any gaps we come across to support recovery, we make sure there are no cracks our disabled members fall in — and that’s a big variable in mitigating duration.
Personalized disability management
Let me also point out that if an employee’s condition deteriorates and they need to file a disability claim, simplifying the process by doing away with many paper forms in favor of a telephone call can personalize the relationship and increase efficiency.
This provides an opportunity to offer more support through the application process, answer any questions they may have, and better understand what’s led up to the disability, as well as assess their treatment protocol, what worked and what hasn’t, and any other complicating factors.
Let us not forget that people are not at their best at this time — they could be really unwell or just diagnosed with a more serious condition — and we want to make filing that claim easier.
Strong mental health resources
Supporting early intervention to avoid a condition from worsening or becoming chronic is critical, particularly when it comes to mental health-related illnesses. Through its partnership with Medaca, we conduct mental health screening assessments in the short-term disability phase (STD), and can move to expedite access to a medical specialist, where needed.
Recent data tells us in Ontario, people are waiting up to two years to see a psychiatrist4 — Medaca helps us connect them within days and this has generated great outcomes in preventing conditions from becoming chronic.
Mitigating duration is critical to disability management, as sliding into long-term disability (LTD) can have a substantial impact on the individual’s wellbeing, and support at this stage becomes even more paramount.
Through a personalized approach, innovative resources, and comprehensive case management, we aim for an early recovery and return to work as soon as safely possible.
Innovation, a pillar of client service
We at iA Financial Group aren’t afraid to try a new approach if it will support a claimant’s recovery: adding flexibility is key to our commitment to supporting the diverse needs of an organization’s workforce.
With the attention we at iA Financial Group are giving to mental health, we’re quite invested in innovation and we really want to modernize what we’re providing in that particular area. That’s why we offer intuitive and easy-to-manage solutions including Mentalhealth+, which provides coaching for more complex mental health conditions, and Opifiny, a digital medical request platform. All these initiatives are about care, protection, optimizing treatment, and managing both employer and employee claims experience.
Employer needs are growing, their employees’ needs are also evolving, and to fully support our clients in their total wellbeing, we work to find innovative solutions to strengthen their group benefit plans and experience.
1 Mental Health at Work (In French only)
2 Community mental health and addictions at a crisis point: CMHA Ontario at budget committee
3 This text is adapted from a an earlier version of an article published in Human Resources Director
4 Psychiatry: wait times in Ontario