COVID-19 and Heightened Attention to Racism Affect American Workers’ Mental Health and Relationships
Morneau Shepell, a leading provider of total wellbeing, mental health and digital mental health services, released its monthly Mental Health Index™ report, making July the fourth consecutive month with a negative mental health score, as feelings of isolation and financial risk continuing to be the top drivers of American employees’ mental health. While mental stress has increased compared to the prior month, the steepness of the increase has, however, been flattening(COVID-19).
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The Mental Health Index™ score for July is -5, which measures a decline in mental health from the pre-2020 benchmark of 75, but this month’s score is a one-point improvement from the previous month. The Mental Health Index™ also tracks sub-scores against the benchmark, measuring optimism (-8.0), anxiety (-6.4), depression (-6.1), work productivity (-5.5) and isolation (-4.8). Although the sub-scores remain low, all areas saw improvement in July except for optimism, which declined slightly when compared to last month.
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“While parts of the United States started to open up for business in June, some markets have had to slow down their reopening plans. The Mental Health Index™ shows the continued negative impact the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic is having on American workers’ mental health and quality of life,” said Stephen Liptrap, president and chief executive officer. “As COVID-19 cases continue to rise again, workers are starting to lose their early optimism on rebounding from the pandemic and remain very concerned about a potential second mass shutdown, similar to what happened in March.”
Anxiety levels rising across many non-White demographics
When it comes to mental health differences by race, the Mental Health Index saw anxiety scores worsen for most people of color in June during the initial awareness and response to the killing of George Floyd. July showed some signs of improvement as the dialogue on racism continued and early indication of change began. In contrast, White respondents continued to show improvement in their mental health month over month, without the same decline in June.
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