Medaca Health Group enhances workplace mental-health treatment platform

Medaca Health Group has expanded its workplace mental-health treatment programs, adding a range of new services designed to help employers reduce absenteeism, prevent long-term disability and help employees with post traumatic stress disorder.

TermCare, the group’s psychiatry-based early intervention service for workplace mental health, has a network of more than 100 psychiatrists to assists employers and insurers to support employees with mental illnesses.  “We focus on the health of the employee,” said Chris Anderson, Medaca’s president, in a news release. “That’s our guiding philosophy. If we can help an employee, everyone wins.

“Employees return to health and work. Employers get a healthy employee, reducing disability and productivity costs. Insurers offer early access to and treatment by specialists in a country with an acute shortage of psychiatrists. Family physicians receive psychiatric back-up that is largely absent in our health-care system today.”

Read: Integrated programs key to successful workplace mental-health strategies

The service has been expanded to provide the following suite of services:

TeamCare Stay at Work: Working with the employer to embed psychometrics into wellness and employee survey tools, the service identifies employees who are at high risk or in the early stages of clinical mental illness and, when necessary, provides rapid access and treatment to foster recovery. Employees receive the help they need to stay at work, avoiding costly absenteeism, presenteeism and disability costs for employers.

TeamCare Early LTD: Tailored to fit more complex situations, this service assists insurance claimants in the later stages of short-term disability or early in the long-term disability period. Its aim is to significantly reduce employer’s disability costs.

TeamCare FR: Through this service, psychiatrists and psychologists with expertise in diagnosing and treating PTSD team up with family physicians to coordinate care for first responders and veterans.

Read: Panel discussion: How to support employees with PTSD

“Early intervention by medical specialists is critical to the workplace mental-health challenge,” said Michael Wilson, chair of the Mental Health Commission of Canada and former chief executive of the Economic and Business Roundtable on Addiction and Mental Health.

“I applaud efforts to help insurers and employers provide access and care to employees. Mentally healthy employees are critical to helping organizations improve their strength and performance. This will become even more important as we move further into a brain-based economy.”

Read: Michael Garron Hospital wins mental-health award for holistic approach