5 Strategies to Stretch Employer Mental Health Resources

NAMI Chief Innovation Officer Darcy Gruttadaro shares insights for employers based on her organization's latest survey data.

Employers are struggling more than ever to control and predict rising healthcare costs, which could surge to historic highs of 8% in 2025.

New data from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), the nation's largest grassroots mental health organization, shows that mental health challenges like stress and burnout impact workplace morale, productivity, profitability, and retention. These challenges also diminish the value of employer healthcare spending when employees don’t understand their mental health benefits, how to access them or how to use them.

In an exclusive interview with HealthLeaders, NAMI Chief Innovation Officer, Darcy Gruttadaro details the mental health benefit strategies that employers can deploy as healthcare headwinds intensify.

First, the latest data . . .

What the results show

NAMI’s 2025 survey included full-time employees at companies with 100+ workers, with these key findings:

• 80% report that mental health support helps create a positive workplace culture.
• 26% of employees don't know whether their employer offers these supports and only 53% know how to access them.
• More than 75% of employees want training on this access and other mental health topics like burnout.

Through Gruttadaro’s insight, five strategies emerged to help employers assess the access, use, and value of the mental health benefits they pay for.

1. Ask the right questions

To understand how well their mental health benefit is working, employers must ask fundamental questions such as:

• Are we offering a full range of mental health support and services?
• Are employees aware of them and how to access them?
• How many phone calls does it take for an employee to get an appointment with a mental health provider?

Gruttadaro understands the challenges employees face.

“I don't want to lose the fact that all of this can be extremely distressing to employees who need and are trying to access mental health care either for themselves or a family member.”

2. Engage employees and get their feedback

To get answers to these questions, Gruttadaro recommends employee engagement surveys, even tapping into the important conversations that happen in Employee Resource Groups (ERGs).

“HR departments and benefit leads should create feedback loops to learn more from employees about how they are doing accessing the company’s mental health benefits — because at the end of the day, that's what really matters most.”

It is through these feedback loops that employers can identify needs, gaps, and hidden access challenges — each addressed in the next three strategies.

3. Meet growing need with diverse, expanded resources

“It’s important that employees have mental health supports they can tap into,” Gruttadaro stresses. “Workplace mental health is not just a nice to have. The last thing you want to do is have an employee walk out the door because they did not have their expectations met.”

The NAMI executive adds: “Younger employees have a strong expectation that businesses will make mental health a priority, will make it visible, that leadership will set a culture that shows the importance of it, and that mental health at work impacts all aspects of work — our engagement, our interaction, our performance, our productivity.”

Making mental health visible in the workplace means making sure an employee understands the resources their employer offers. Per Gruttadaro, this support package should include not only traditional mental health benefits, but an Employee Assistance Program (EAP), and digital supports that connect employees to everything from online therapy to meditation apps.

Gruttadaro notes that employees don’t know what their options are because organizations are not doing a very good job on the mental health training side.

“One thing that came through loud and clear in our 2024 and 2025 national polling is that employees really want mental health training — 82% recognize that it is important to a positive work culture. The more employers offer mental health training, the more we raise the visibility of mental health in the workplace.”

Other mental health resources include those outside of the workplace, offered by community organizations like NAMI.

“We offer support groups, free education programs, a whole array of workplace and mental health resources. Sometimes people may not want to access certain kinds of support from their employer,” Gruttadaro notes.

The NAMI website includes education and support programs, access to the NAMI HelpLine for resources and referrals, and a sister site, NAMI Stigma Free, that advances mental well-being in the workplace.

4. Strengthen health plan oversight to prevent access obstacles

Historically, it has been difficult for employers to obtain data from their health plans. This includes information on health plan practices when it comes to employees. In past interviews, HealthLeaders has learned that some health plans steer employees toward their workplace EAP before facilitating use of their benefits.

When asked about this, Gruttadaro states: “I don’t know how prevalent the practice is, but employers should be asking whether their health plan is requiring EAP first. For acute needs, that wouldn’t be appropriate. If large employers are paying for robust mental health provider networks, they must be accessible to employees.”

“I've done workplace mental health for many years and have been amazed at what I hear. I think employers and benefits leads should be asking much more direct questions and seeking more data from their vendors.”

Gruttadaro recommends that employers write parameters into their health plan contracts and  — again —get employee feedback on health plan practices.

5. Treat mental health supports as a moral and business imperative

NAMI survey shows employees are worried about their finances, physical and mental health, and the state of the world. Yet only a slight majority believe that their company and its senior leadership prioritize employee mental health or care about them personally.

Gruttadaro emphasizes that employer investment in mental health resources isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s a business imperative.

In a press release linked to the NAMI survey, Gruttadaro added: “It takes a commitment for companies to implement mental health education and establish mental health benefits. By doing so, organizations will see the individual and organizational impact of increased productivity, connection, and satisfaction amongst employees who are connected to resources.

Gruttadaro adds: “Our workplaces are a community. They are where we spend the majority of our time. We know that performance and productivity improve when people have a sense of belonging and purpose. Employers must make it very clear that they care about the mental health and well-being of their employees as much as they care about physical health and all aspects of life.”