At Providence Swedish, there was an employee wellness incentive program that was very educational and kept us all involved. The program went through many topics, including stressors, exercise, food choices, relationships, and more. During that program, I learned ways to cope with the high stress levels that I always seem to carry. My thoughts on current stress levels and how I manage them were confirmed after completing the stress and personality tests.

One of the most insightful things that I learned through the wellness program was that a family history of heart disease, higher stress levels, and poor diet would eventually contribute to my own heart problems. The takeaway from that experience was that I could learn how to manage my stress and change eating habits to do my best to counteract that inevitability. When the results of the Coping & Stress Management Skills Test stated that I “often use these strategies in order to cope with stress” and that it “is to my advantage to take action to modify a situation to cope with it,” I found myself feeling more in control of my behaviors and reactions to stress.

Organizations, such as Providence Swedish, are incorporating programs for their employees with the mentality that prioritizing employee wellbeing will eventually be reciprocated and transferred to their own production needs. Last year, the World Health Organization estimated that $1 trillion in production is lost annually due to depression and anxiety (2024). The use of Employee Assistance Programs and wellness programs can be essential support for employees’ mental health needs and lessen the impact of burnout. It also reduces overall health costs for the organization by making resources available to employees prior to stressors causing major concurrent chronic illnesses.

World Health Organization. 2024. Mental Health at Work. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health-at work#:~:text=Globally%2C%20an%20estimated%2012%20billion,workers%20with%20mental%20health%20conditions