ComPsych, the world’s largest provider of mental health and absence management services, has released new today that shows mental health related leaves continue to skyrocket among U.S. workes. A sample analysis of ComPsych’s absence book of business, which covers mroe than six million people, finds that in the first quarter of 2024, more than one in 10 (11%) of all leaves of absence were due to mental health. This represents a 22% increase in mental health leaves versus those taken in the first quarter of 2023. This trend is being driven by female workers, who accounted for 69% of all mental health leaves of absence in 2023, and 71% of all mental health leaves in the first quarter of 2024.
“There is a growing mental health crisis among female workers,” says Dr. Jennifer Birdsall, clinical director of ComPsych. “Working women, especially moms and other caregivers, often neglect their self-care until they hit the point of being so burnt out they need to take a leave of absence. The more organizations can support resiliency-building, teaching self-care, and prioritizing work-life balance before things escalate into significant symptoms with functional impacts, the better. This is where the continuum of care, which includes prevention, comes into play.”
In total, more Americans took mental health leaves of absence in the first quarter of the year than those for accidents, cancer, COVID-19, and heart attack combined. Previous ComPsych data has shown that mental health leaves have exploded since the pandemic, increasing 300% from 2017 to 2023, and 33% in 2023 alone.
