Policy Research Associates, Inc. (PRA) was recently awarded the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA’s) new Expanding the Adoption of Workplace Mental Health Approaches project. This one-year project is the follow-up to SAMHSA’s Emotional Wellness and Mental Health in the Workplace project completed by PRA in September 2017. In May 2017, PRA staff worked with SAMHSA to convene an Expert Panel to review literature and explore practices used within a wide variety of organizations to promote emotional wellness and mental health in the workplace and make recommendations to SAMHSA with regard to adopting national standards for workplace wellness.
Over the next 12 months, PRA will work closely with SAMHSA and a project Steering Committee to build upon this work and develop a toolkit of evidence-based and best practices that can be adapted and adopted by employers to promote a mentally healthy workplace. The toolkit will also include metrics for assessing the progress and increasing the evidence base required to support broader adoption of these practices by American employers.
PRA is eager to support SAMHSA’s efforts to prioritize workplace mental health and endorse a set of best practices to promote a mentally healthy workplace. The project will be managed by Terri Hay, PRA Program Area Director and coordinated by Dr. Crystal Brandow, PRA Senior Project Associate.