November 25, 2024
Less Confusion. More Connected Care.
Cancer is Common: Be There for Your Workforce
According to the American Cancer Society, 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women in the United States will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime.1 In 2022, there were almost 20 million new cancer cases worldwide.2 Cancer is here to stay, and it doesn’t discriminate. Most of your workforce will be affected by it in one way or another, at some point in their lives — whether as a caregiver or a patient themselves.
It’s important not to be blindsided by the news of a cancer diagnosis within your workforce. Reframing it as a common challenge of the human condition, rather than a catastrophe, will help you and your employees be better prepared when the time comes. Providing the most holistic care possible for your employees will ensure they have all the resources they need earlier and throughout their cancer journey.
Having robust, comprehensive benefits in place is especially important after a cancer diagnosis, as every individual’s health journey is different. Multidisciplinary care teams that include pharmacy and behavioral health experts can help coordinate options, solutions and expertise around each individual employee, offering crucial tips like treatment guidance and more affordable sites of care. As employees’ health challenges and needs evolve, care management support should be nimble enough to meet that complexity with confidence.
Such complexity can strongly be felt at the crossroads of cancer care and behavioral health. A study in the National Library of Medicine uncovered that rates of major depressive disorder are thought to be up to three times higher among cancer patients than in the general population.3 But integrating comprehensive mental and physical care for cancer patients can make lives less difficult and increase survival times.4 As cancer prevalence continues to rise, facilitating a comprehensive approach that includes behavioral health treatment for every one of your employees is an essential part of holistic benefits.
A crucial step you can take as an employer is establishing an open dialogue with employees, encouraging them to share whatever they’re comfortable with regarding their hardships both in and outside of work. If they feel safe to communicate, you will have more opportunities to remind them of all the resources at their disposal.
Cancer will continue to affect your workforce in direct and indirect ways. Having a proactive plan in place eases that burden exponentially. We’re here to help. Our combination of expert multidisciplinary care teams and comprehensive behavioral health support can make their health journey more manageable, affordable and understandable. Together, we can help your employees experience less stress, less homework and less time wasted. Because when it comes to cancer, one less thing means everything.