With the cost of health care rising, employers would do well to consider the productivity impacts of illness on their business, participants at Benefits Canada’s Face to Face Drug Plan Management Forum heard last month. “Billions of dollars are spent,” said Dr. Aslam Anis, a professor at the University of British Columbia’s School of Population […]
How can employers implement a strategic wellness program to make a difference to employees’ mental health? Eric Pfeiffer, senior health management consultant at Manulife, presented four of the top findings of the Salveo study at the Mental Health Summit in Toronto. The study looked at more than 2,000 employees in 63 different companies, specifically focusing […]
What do finances have to do with our mental health? Quite a lot, actually. “When we look at surveys where we ask what causes you stress, the answer that tops the charts is consistently personal finance,” said Marie-Hélène Pelletier, assistant vice-president for workplace mental health at Sun Life Financial, during Benefits Canada’s Mental Health Summit […]
With growing awareness of the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder, what’s the role of employers in supporting employees dealing with it? That was the focus of a panel discussion during Benefits Canada’s Mental Health Summit in Toronto last month. As Ann Malain, executive vice-president for clinical practice and stay-at-work services at with Homewood Health, explained, […]
At $45 million per year, antidepressant claims are “the biggest spend in our drug portfolio,” Peter Gove, health innovation leader at Green Shield Canada, told Benefits Canada’s Mental Health Summit in Toronto. The insurer looked at 36,000 claimants who had newly started on antidepressant medication. The data showed that 15 per cent of the claimants […]
Major depression is more likely to be a heterogeneous group of disorders rather than a single condition, Dr. Sidney Kennedy, professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto, told Benefits Canada’s Mental Health Summit in Toronto. In fact, research has identified more than 200 different combinations of symptoms that qualify for the diagnosis of a […]
Lakeside Process Controls Ltd. had gone eight years without a disability claim, but the company took notice when it saw three mental health-related short-term disability claims in the last two years. “That’s where our journey on adding mental health to our wellness programs really began,” said Stephanie Enright, director of talent management and administration at […]
On any given week, thousands of Canadians won’t make it into work due to a mental-health problem or illness. “[Mental health is] the No. 1 cause of group disability claims and represents one out of three active, open claims with insurance carriers,” said Travis Kelly, director of group disability and rehabilitation at Desjardins Insurance, during […]
While preferred shares have historically been the domain of individual investors, they hold some attraction for institutional players seeking the regular income offered by bonds as well as higher returns. “That’s the theory,” says Todd Nelson, Toronto investment leader at Willis Towers Watson, of the argument for preferred shares. “You’re further down in the security […]
Exchange-traded funds are gaining ground. According to the London, England-based research and consultancy firm ETFGI LLP, assets invested in ETFs and exchange-traded products listed globally reached about US$3.1 trillion at the end of May 2016. Greenwich Associates’ 2015 study of Canadian institutional ETFs showed institutional users of ETFs had invested an average 21 per cent […]