The connection between Mental Health and Chronic Pain

There’s a connection between chronic pain, mental health and your workforce. This connection may seem invisible, but it could be causing havoc within your employees bodies. 

In this article, we’ll discuss the connection and how you can help your workforce through this invisible pain with the help of employee benefits. 

What is chronic pain?

Chronic pain is long-standing pain that someone is facing that doesn’t solve itself after the normal healing period. This pain may be continuous or could be on and off but recurring frequently. 

For a lot of people, this chronic pain affects them to the point that they aren’t able to work, eat properly or enjoy their life and normal activities. 

What is MSK Health and why does it matter?

Many chronic pain conditions, including musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions like low back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and arthritis, are generally invisible. When employees struggle with MSK conditions oftentimes the employer doesn’t even know about it. When an employer doesn’t know about it, they aren’t able to include benefits options to help alleviate the pain they’re experiencing. 

Psychological health problems are said to cost the Canadian economy $51 billion a year, of which $20 billion comes from work-related causes. This statistic was found through the Mental Health Commission of Canada. 

As a business professional, it’s imperative to understand the mental and physical stressors of your employees to help them figure out how to work through these things. Now that you know about MSK health conditions, it’s also a good idea to consider the employee’s office environment to see if it’s helping or hindering their conditions. This can include office desk setup, the type of chair the employee is using, if the work is physical, ensuring that the proper gear is available to them, etc. 

What should employers do to help?

If you’re an employer who is wanting to support team members through their mental health journey as well as their physical health/chronic pain issues, you need to ensure that the correct services are available to your team. This includes chiropractors, physiotherapists, talk therapists and other mental health care providers. 

For example let’s chat about chiropractors for a minute and why it’s important your benefits package includes this offering. Because a chiropractor receives a large breadth of education, they are able to notice mental health green, yellow or red flags. They can offer referrals to the correct healthcare professionals if they believe a client is facing greater mental health struggles. They can also address different types of chronic pain and help create the conditions to improve both their physical (chronic) and mental health. 

As you know there is a connection between mental health and physical health. Employers who are hoping to help with employee mental health, also need to help with employee physical health. Take a look at your workplace benefits and offerings to see if they align with both types of health. If they don’t reach out to Navy & Sage Benefits to rework and modify your benefits package to align better with your company’s hope. 

Call us today.

If these sound like two areas you’d like to work and improve on in 2024, please give us a call today. We’d be happy to discuss how 2024 can be the year that your employees are able to work through their mental health and chronic pain with the help of their employer’s care and attention.