Proactive Mental Health Support Can Support Global Economy

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio, News.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:08)
You're listening to Bloomberg Businessweek with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec on Bloomberg Radio.

**Tim Stenovec** (0:14)
Carol got this on our radar this morning on our editorial call. Climate change contributing to higher nighttime temperatures that are causing people to lose an average of almost 56 hours of sleep a year and threatening health. This is according to a new study.

**Carol Massar** (0:26)
I definitely hear it from people. It's just, it's so hot, I can't sleep. I'm not sleeping well and Tim and I-

**Tim Stenovec** (0:30)
It doesn't help to have the electric company say, put your thermostat at 78 degrees to-

**Carol Massar** (0:35)
That's why you sleep in an ice pack or something. But no, but you and I talk about it. Every time we go to a doctor, it's like, how are you sleeping? Are you getting sleep? How important it is to health.

**Tim Stenovec** (0:42)
Well, it's not just warm temps that can keep us up at night. Major life events, I mean, losing a loved one, coming back to work after becoming a parent, going through a divorce, those things can have significant impacts when it comes to mental health and of course, productivity as well. We've got Sam Miley with us, Head of Forecasting and Thought Leadership at the Centre for Economics and Business Research. Also, Andrea Christie-David, Director of Mental Health at the International Private Healthcare Company, Bupa. Sam joins us from Madrid. Andrea is in Sydney. Sam, I want to start with you because you and the folks at the Centre for Economics and Business Research were behind this study and $42 billion a year is the number that is lost or at least could be saved if we figure out how to handle this proactively.
How did you do this study and come to that conclusion?

**Sam Miley** (1:32)
The team at Bupa were particularly interested in understanding how people respond to certain big life moments and in the context of the workplace.
Say if you're going through a divorce, if you're becoming a parent or a carer, how does that then translate into the workplace? Are you taking more time off? Are you still going to work but performing at less than your typical capacity? These are the types of channels we were looking at and ultimately we're looking to quantify.

**Carol Massar** (2:02)
It's significant. And listen, I hate to put things in dollars, but it's certainly what gets CEO's attention.
Sam, it's what gets, you know, economies, leaders of countries, their attention. I mean, there is an impact. You know, I feel like we've talked about this. Why was it important to do this particular study? What new light was shed for you?

**Sam Miley** (2:24)
Well, it ultimately puts a quite tangible cost to the impact of poor mental well-being. And in that sense, it's the most digestible way to understand what is quite a human and emotional phenomenon.

**Tim Stenovec** (2:41)
I think what's most interesting to me about this is the proactive approach, because in talking about mental health at work is nothing new. In workplaces, I think, at least in many parts of the United States and in bigger companies that have the resources are certainly, seem like they're starting to take this seriously.

**Carol Massar** (2:58)
And I would say COVID really opened up this conversation.

**Tim Stenovec** (3:01)
Absolutely.
Andrea, come on in here, because I'm curious about a proactive approach to mental health instead of a reactive approach. What does that mean?

**SPEAKER_1** (3:13)
It means normalizing it, right? We are all going to experience challenges with our mental health from time to time, and it's okay to talk about it. It means being aware that we're going to have these bumps in the road, and identifying what tools you might use. That might be talking to friends, increasing exercise, looking at chatting to your GP even as the first port of call. But at Bupa, because we are setting up these mind place clinics across the globe, we really want to be part of that preventative conversation. And in Australia so far, we're finding that 50% of our patients that are coming through have never accessed mental health support before. So it's showing that even by putting these types of sites on foot, traffic available to the public means it's more accessible and it's easier for people to feel like there is a place to go when they're even starting to feel some of these challenges.

**Carol Massar** (4:05)
Andrea, there's, you know, making sure that there are places for people to go or to talk to, certainly one aspect. I also think we still, as a society, corporate society, personal society, the support of having it, whether it's family, friends, you know, those you work with, like, that is also an important component to this.