As concerns about mental health and substance use continue to rise, yet the challenges of navigating mental health treatment access persist, many workplaces want new or expanded resources to support their employees’ mental health and well-being. Employers increasingly recognize the impact that mental health and substance use can have on employee productivity, satisfaction, and retention, but also struggle to foster recovery-friendly workplace cultures.

In a comprehensive needs assessment that Purdue Extension conducted among Indiana employers across industries in 2021, the greatest unmet prevention and education needs related to mental health and substance use were for developing work-life balance, developing stress management strategies, and addressing stigmatizing attitudes. Demand for such supports were echoed by employees in the Mental Health Index report (LifeWorks 2022), where 48% of respondents confirmed doing their job when feeling unwell at least one day per week, yet 26% also indicated that they would prefer better support for their well-being over a 10% salary increase.

As a well-respected community educational resource, Extension has an opportunity to partner with workplaces and address these concerns. However, many existing mental health education programs present certain barriers that can make them difficult to implement with workplace audiences, such as those with a large time commitment like Mental Health First Aid or those with intimidating subject matter for introductory audiences like Question, Persuade, Refer.

This is why Purdue Extension Health & Human Sciences developed an introductory mental health education curriculum specifically tailored for workplace environments called the Compassion & Resilience Education at Work or CREW Curriculum. CREW is a grab-and-go tool that Extension professionals can use to deliver activity-driven sessions based in research on the topics of work-life balance, stress management, and stigma reduction. CREW is adaptable to deliver virtually or in person, has modifications options to tailor to different industry needs, and is flexible for offering either as standalone 1-hour sessions or as a series.

To learn more about Purdue Extension’s CREW Curriculum, including information about how you can purchase a copy and add this program to your mental health resources toolbox, please see the attached flyer. Questions about the CREW Curriculum can be emailed to ExtensionHHS@purdue.edu.

LifeWorks (2022). Mental health index, August 2022. https://lifeworks.com/en/mental-health-index.