As a Medical Director for Magellan Behavioral Health of Pennsylvania, Chris Squillaro, DO, manages many different responsibilities. As a supervisor of the Pennsylvania medical staff, he performs reviews, attends complaint and grievance hearings, and leads various rounds with our care managers. Dr. Squillaro also provides the executive leadership with input on strategy and focusing on prioritizing what’s important to our county customers. Whenever a medical opinion or perspective is needed, Dr. Squillaro, who has been with Magellan since 2021, always provides that medical input into the initiatives and intervention being done in Pennsylvania. Continue reading to learn more about what innovative behavioral health projects and initiatives Dr. Squillaro is currently working on in Pennsylvania:

What sort of innovative projects are you currently working on?

There’s an enterprise-wide movement to develop a common suicide pathway to decrease suicidality. Pennsylvania is heavily involved with that project although it involves more than just Pennsylvania. I’ve been working on this with the corporate and Pennsylvania leadership.

We are also doing a project in Pennsylvania called Project Red, which aims to decrease readmission rates and standardize the discharge process. This is a project that’s being led by two researchers out of Massachusetts who had developed Project Red originally for the medical side, and they want to convert it to the behavioral side.

I’m also involved in a trauma informed care summit because of a Pennsylvania Commonwealth initiative. The goal is to transition all the Commonwealth residential treatment facilities to tiered trauma designations that demonstrate competency in trauma care for children and adolescents in that level of care. Included in this would be consistent trauma screening and treatment, decreasing physical and chemical restraints, having a trauma informed lens as patients move through care and awareness of experiences in the milieu that may be triggering.

We also have a medication adherence project where I clinically supervise the pharmacist who is working on improving medication adherence for some of our more severe patients through direct member education and training.

Why is Magellan Behavioral Health of Pennsylvania the best place to do these projects?

I think we have a holistic view of the healthcare delivery system, not just within individual units across the country but enterprise wide. We have our eyes on national issues through touchpoints with the corporate team. We understand what Pennsylvania’s priorities are, what their initiatives are, and what issues are important to them. We can get even more granular at a county level. Each county is in tune with what are its’ constituents wants and needs. Pennsylvania is very diverse, there are swings in socioeconomic status between regions and resources. We get this population health view at a national level, that then is informed all the way down to the county level so we can see it not only for what’s important from a national perspective, but then in each Pennsylvania community. With that information, we can come up with the best way to approach problems.

I think there’s also a lot of willingness and eagerness to use technology at Magellan. It helps us to sort and track outcomes. Magellan is really getting involved with technology, this is something that’ll be hugely helpful for what we can do in the future.

What are your thoughts on the culture at Magellan Health? How has that culture impacted the projects you’re working on?

Before I worked at Magellan, I was a provider. Magellan has always been willing to try new things. If providers had a good way of solving common problems, in my experience, Magellan was certainly willing to entertain it and develop programming around it. I think that willingness to adapt, change, and try new things is what makes projects successful. The culture of being able to move around problems and to adapt is one of the things I saw since before working at Magellan and has only been reaffirmed since I’ve joined this team.

What direction do you see healthcare going in? Have you noticed any exciting trends in the healthcare industry? What lessons are there to learn in other industries that can be applied to healthcare?

I feel we are learning from the way that care is delivered on the medical side. Using outcomes and data to make decisions is one of the things that’s exciting in behavioral health. Some screening tools that have been developed have become more reliable and it’s starting to create a common language that we can have with our medical counterparts. This then creates opportunities to coordinate at key levels of care. There’s also a lot more collaboration between medical and behavioral health. It’s not new information that behavioral health has a significant impact on medical costs overall and medical quality. I see medicine becoming more integrative. On the behavioral health side, we’re catching up on the importance of data-driven decision-making outcomes and managing from a population health perspective.

Another trend is in customer care. We are learning from industries where customer satisfaction is critical to ease of access, utilization, adherence, and adoption of a plan. We’re doing a lot of customer surveys and making sure people are happy with the service that they’re getting.

Lastly, we’re adopting the standardization and checklist mentality that I most associate with the airline industry. This is a public safety concern that has been effectively managed by airlines to assure safety and limit mistakes. We are utilizing and promoting standardized tools and checklists to consistently diagnosis issues. We are then using algorithms to standardize treatment pathways. This assures consistencies across providers and assures that the most appropriate evidence-based interventions are being utilized to treat people.

The body is an amazing instrument. Major organs work together to allow you to breathe, convert food into nutrients, move in space, reproduce, protect yourself or heal from illness, and perceive and make sense of the world around you. While the body is capable of so much, why do many individuals dislike their bodies? The answer to this question is more complicated than it may appear.

What is Body Image?

Body image is a term that describes thoughts, feelings, beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions about one’s body (Hosseini & Padhy, 2022).

Specifically, body image is defined as:

• How you see your body, including your height, shape, and weight, and individual body parts,
• What you think and believe about your body,
• How you feel about your body, and
• What you do to address your feelings, beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions about your body.

Body image is an important component of overall wellbeing and influences how people function on a day-to-day basis. Body image exists along a negative/positive continuum and may change at any time. When realistic expectations, acceptance of and/or satisfaction with the body occur, a positive body image is experienced. Conversely, when thoughts, feelings and beliefs about the body are inconsistent with an ideal image one forms in their mind, a negative body image occurs (Office of Women’s Health, 2021; National Eating Disorders Association [NEDA], 2021).

How is Body Image formed?

The development of body image is a complex process. It begins in early childhood and evolves over time. The process consists of interactions between external and internal factors (Hosseini & Padhy, 2022; NEDA, 2021).

• External Factors: Cultural/Environmental/Social—Messages from parents, siblings, peers, teachers, and the media influence beliefs and assumptions about the body. Comparisons to others coupled with a culture that focuses on beauty, perfection, and anti-aging may contribute to shaping opinions about the self. This is often seen on social media as it often perpetuates that beauty and perfection are the ultimate goals, with filters and editing tools creating a distorted reality. The constant bombardment of images promoting youthfulness can make individuals feel inadequate and self-conscious about their appearance. Traumatic experiences (accidents, sexual/physical assault, emotional neglect) may impact body image. Developmental milestones such as transitioning from child to adulthood, starting a family, dealing with adult children leaving home, and aging/retiring from work may increase the probability of fluctuating body images.
• Internal Factors: Personality/Emotional/Psychological—Anxiety and depression, and personality characteristics such as perfectionism, rigid thinking, and high expectations of self may influence or reinforce body image.

Tips on Achieving and Maintaining a Positive Body Image

Your wellbeing is in part, dependent on your body image. Therefore, working towards and maintaining a positive body image benefits your physical and psychological health, as well as your relationships with others. These recommendations may help you in your journey (NEDA, 2021) toward an optimal body image.

• Remember your body is merely the shell in which your emotional, physical, and spiritual person resides. Your body does not define you.
• Take care of your body. To function properly, your body needs a consistent dose of nourishment, including food, physical activity, and social relationships.
• When thoughts about your appearance start to overwhelm you, remind yourself of all the things your body can do. Your body allows you to move through space, view the world around you, problem-solve, experience different emotions, and connect with others.
• Limit negative media influences: Unfollow sites that equate extreme body types (for example, very thin or very muscular) with happiness. This includes unfollowing people and influencers on social media that put a focus on unrealistic body images. Receive information on healthy dieting from your doctor, not the media. Observe the contents of advertisements with critical eyes and ears before making impulsive decisions to adopt the message or purchase the item.
• Surround yourself with positive people and messages. Being with people you trust and receiving messages that inspire you help to prevent an unrealistic body image.

Be mindful of signs that may signal a path toward a negative body image. It is normal to engage in some of these behaviors every now and then. However, if you find that these activities are starting to interfere with or prevent you from accomplishing routine daily activities, it may be time to discuss these issues with your doctor. Avoid these behaviors:

• Looking in the mirror multiple times a day.
• Believing that happiness is equated to physical attractiveness.
• Comparing your appearance to others.
• Avoiding social situations because you are not attractive enough.
• Wearing loose or bulky clothes to hide your body shape.
• Engaging in extreme diets.
• Declining invitations where eating is involved.
• Refusing to be part of a photograph or editing photographs of yourself before sharing them.
• Approaching hygiene needs or shopping for clothes with dread.
• Feeling depressed or anxious, or having trouble concentrating after you eat.
• Asking friends and family about their opinions regarding your appearance.

An ideal body is not measured by how you look. An ideal body is one that functions optimally and allows you to embrace what life has to offer. Slowly shifting your thoughts from self-criticism to ones of appreciation and respect may improve your overall wellbeing.

References

• Hosseini SA, Padhy RK. [Updated 2022 Sep 5] Body Image Distortion. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2022 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK546582/
• National Eating Disorder Association. (2018, February 22). 10 steps to positive body image. Body Retrieved from https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/body-image-0 https://www.womenshealth.gov/mental-health/body-image-and-mental-health/body-image
• S. Department of Health & Human Services. February 17, 2021, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health. Office of Women’s Health. Body Image https://www.womenshealth.gov/mental-health/body-image-and-mental-health/body-image

Introduction

When disasters or tragedies occur, people seek information from traditional news sources and social media. Staying up to date is part of being an informed citizen, and while consuming media can be beneficial in moderation, “doomscrolling” — exposing yourself to a never-ending stream of distressing information — could be negatively impacting your overall wellbeing.

If you find yourself overwhelmed by the constant flow of negative information but can’t bring yourself to turn away from Twitter, you are not alone. For 50 years, Magellan Federal has helped more than three million civilian employees and their families enhance their emotional wellness and reduce stress. The following information and tips can help you to avoid doomscrolling if your social media usage is getting in the way of your wellness.

Doomscrolling Defined

Doomscrolling (also known as doomsurfing) is the term used for persistent and excessive reading of negative news online. It was popularized by Quartz reporter Karen Ho in 2020 during the lockdown at the height of the COVID pandemic. Like many of us,  Ho struggled with compulsively reading upsetting news about the ongoing pandemic. She would send nightly tweets (pictured right) to her followers encouraging them to take a break from doomscrolling bad news and to get a good night’s sleep (8).

Doomscrolling Characteristics — What to Look Out For

Doomscrolling differs from regular social media usage and has four main characteristics that makes it a distinct activity.

• This is a persistent activity that becomes habitual.
• It is caused by environmental factors.
• The sessions are multiple hours, and the user often loses track of time.
• The content viewed is negative, distressing, and timely.

While typical social media usage may have one or more of the above-mentioned factors, all factors are present for doomscrolling. Further, a study used to create a doomscrolling scale found the activity was highly associated with “online vigilance, problematic internet/social media use, and FOMO” (fear of missing out) (13).

Reasons for Doomscrolling

Fear of the unknown is the primary motivator driving people to engage in doomscrolling, however, multiple factors may contribute to and perpetuate their fear.

Biological Imperative

During times of crisis or tragedy, people gather information to reduce uncertainty, create a plan, and attempt to exert some measure of control over the situation (17). This behavior is rooted in survival instincts related to paying more attention to negative information than positive and scanning the environment for danger to protect one’s family (14).

Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)

While FOMO typically refers to anxiety experienced as a result of seeing an exciting or interesting event happening elsewhere, FOMO also applies to doomscrolling. With no end to social media posts, there is always one more piece of information that could be read.

Perpetuating the Cycle

With doomscrolling, the information collected on tragedies and disasters that was meant to reduce uncertainty and allay feelings of anxiety instead increases these feelings, particularly when the events are beyond one’s control. As we scroll, we’re flooded with information that for the most part, we can do nothing about, except to keep scrolling and sharing, perpetuating the cycle. As a result, we feed the paralyzing loop of information that can lead to feelings of helplessness and despair (11).

Algorithms

It’s no secret that the goal of social media titans like Facebook and Twitter is to have users interact with their products for as long as possible. To that end, these platforms create algorithms to learn their customers’ habits and then customize the online experience to them (15). The more a user interacts with the platform, the more the algorithm “learns” what content to provide, without concern for possible user harm (8). As a result, the curated content displayed for each user plays on their emotions to keep them engaged—even negative ones. Naturally, repeated exposure to distressing content can have a negative impact on mental health.

Risk Factors

Current research findings show that certain individuals are more likely to engage in doomscrolling than others.

• Men and younger adults regardless of ideological beliefs (13)
• Those with anxiety or depressive disorders
• People who score high in neuroticism
• Those who are addicted to social media (12)
• Individuals with previous childhood maltreatment experiences

Effects of Doomscrolling

Since the start of the pandemic, there have been multiple studies on the mental health effects of doomscrolling. Recent research findings suggest doomscrolling is associated with:

• Increased anxiety and psychological distress
• Lower mental well-being
• Increased depression
• Increased phone use
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms
• Decline in sleep quality

Prevention & Coping Techniques

As with most harmful habits, the best time to address them is before they start. Many of the techniques and tips provided below can be used to both prevent doomscrolling (or any excessive social media use) and also to help reduce doomscrolling once it has become a habit.

Technology Tips

• See no evil: Provide feedback on social media posts with negative content by using the “hide post” or “block/mute” features. This will provide information to the platform algorithm to provide less of this type of content (9).
• Set a time: Reduce the amount of time online by using screen timers and stick to no more than 30 minutes as any more has been connected to increased levels of anxiety (3, 17).
• Scroll with purpose: Picking a specific subject to get information on will not only help meet the new scrolling time limits, but it will also create a sense of accomplishment when the information is obtained (17).
• Subdue screen colors: As all casinos know, the more flashy and colorful something is, the easier it is to keep someone’s attention. Changing social media settings to “gray–scale” will make the screens more monotone/less visually appealing and can make it easier to stop scrolling (3).
• Search for the happy: Known as “hopescrolling,” this can lead to more positive thoughts and can help “reset” social media algorithms to show you more positive content.

Beyond Online

• Connect with others: Share the burden with loved ones and others within your social networks to reduce anxiety (17).
• Connect with yourself: Perform regular self-check ins by listening to your body and paying attention to how you are feeling to understand when it is time to take a break (16, 17).
• Connect with the outdoors: Engage in hobbies that involve the outdoors including exercise and fresh air while leaving technology, and feelings of anxiety behind (17).

Clinical Support

• Nonmedical counseling: Qualified counselors can help create a plan to address the problem. Non-medical counseling is short-term and addresses general conditions of living, life skills, improving relationships, and stress management.
• For Clinicians: Since clients also consume social media for entertainment as well as coping measures, it may be helpful to work with them to identify alternative hobbies or activities they will enjoy that will not involve social media or other digital technology (10).

Summary

In a global society with a 24-hour news cycle and social media that offers infinite scrolling, there is always more news to consume. People can fall victim to doomscrolling when distressing events occur, leading to increased anxiety and stress, creating a self-feeding cycle that can be difficult to break.

For those wanting to stop doomscrolling, it is important to first acknowledge the behavior, be honest with how it may be affecting your mental health, and be proactive in your approach to modify your actions. No matter what your relationship is with the news, this technique will help maintain a healthy relationship with social media and overall digital wellness.

A life-altering situation is an event that is strong enough to upend long-held routines and can positively or negatively impact an individual’s quality of life. Examples include a death of a family member, marriage, relationship issues, and in more extreme cases, can include natural catastrophes or intense personal losses.

Crisis intervention is an immediate acute intervention after a life-altering situation. This intervention type is focused on reducing the initial distress caused by the event to foster adaptive functioning and coping. Magellan Federal supports Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) responders with onsite stress counselors to provide crisis intervention and support to FEMA employees so they can provide critical disaster response to areas in need. We have been supporting FEMA’s disaster response teams for more than 20 years.

We believe crisis intervention is critical to resilience and recovery due to the immediate intervention after a life-altering situation. Immediate intervention can help someone cope with the initial reactions of fear, worry, powerlessness, and/or hopelessness afterward. Here are some tips for normalizing and addressing these needs to improve long-term recovery.

How to Provide Assistance

It is hard to know exactly when and what to say to support someone who has experienced a life-altering situation. In our experience, it is best to reach out and offer assistance early, when the individual is most vulnerable. Here are a few steps that can help to facilitate crisis intervention:

1. Connect with them on the human level. Focus on listening with compassion and being present for the person while validating their experience and acknowledging their feelings.
2. Determine if their basic needs are being met. This includes food, water, shelter, clothing, and safety. Assess their immediate needs and connect them to available resources. Addressing immediate basic needs is a way to improve quality of life quickly while providing steps towards recovery.
3. Help them to identify additional needs they may have. Connect them with practical resources once their initial basic needs are cared for.
4. Connect them with available support resources. This can include family, friends, neighbors, and community helping resources.

How to Cope with a Crisis and Move Forward

Validate and Acknowledge Your Feelings

It is completely natural to feel overwhelmed after undergoing a life-altering event. Common reactions after a crisis can include strong emotions, numbing, and worry. It’s important to acknowledge and validate that these feelings may come and go in waves and are normal in short durations. Also, remind yourself that these feelings are an expected part of the acceptance and healing process. Identify strategies used in the past to cope, and determine if they would be helpful now.

Break Tasks Down into Smaller Actions

Recovering from a life-altering situation may feel overwhelming and insurmountable to some. The stress from a life-altering situation can affect cognitive and problem-solving abilities, and a survivor may need assistance with making appointments and completing paperwork. It’s crucial in those times to break down needs into smaller action steps. This will lead to small measures of success and increase confidence in coping.

Connect with Social Support

Social support includes reaching out to others in the community such as family, friends, or neighbors for help. It may feel challenging at first due to embarrassment, worrying about burdening others, doubting if support is available, and being too overwhelmed, but connecting with others can accelerate the healing process by normalizing a shared experience and decreasing isolation.

Practice Deep Breathing Exercises

Take time out of the day to practice calming exercises such as deep breathing. Controlling our breath allows our nervous system to regulate and emerge from a fight, flight, or freeze reaction. A simple exercise can be to inhale slowly through your nose and comfortably fill your lungs all the way down to your stomach. Exhale slowly through your mouth and comfortably empty your lungs. You can repeat this five times slowly and as many times a day as needed.

Develop a Structured Routine

Try to develop a structured routine to help with decision-making. This new routine may differ vastly from your previous routine based on new values post-life-altering situations.

Focus on Getting Adequate Sleep

If possible, try to get to sleep at the same time daily. Don’t drink caffeinated beverages in the evening, reduce alcohol consumption, increase daytime exercises, relax before bedtime, and limit naps to 15 minutes, not after 4 p.m. Giving your body and mind adequate time to rest will help fuel positive processing skills and emotional responses the following day.

Limit or Eliminate Alcohol Consumption

Substance use can lead to problems with sleep, relationships, jobs, and physical health.

Know When to Ask for Additional Help

If stress reactions persist over four to six weeks or worsen and impair functioning, it’s a sign to ask for additional help from a community counselor or therapist. It’s important to note that crisis intervention is not therapy. Therapy can help make a diagnosis and can be a long-term commitment with one identified provider with treatment-specific goals.

Acknowledging the Emotional Effects of a Crisis

Whether you were directly involved in the crisis or not, it is normal to experience waves of emotions after a life-altering event. Often, the structure, schedule, and routine in your life have been destroyed, and you are unsure where to start. It’s OK to feel powerlessness, overwhelmed, and even angry. At that moment, it may feel embarrassing or burdensome to ask for help. You are not alone. Know that there are people that can and want to help and getting help early is critical to being one step closer to recovery.

Additional Resources

• The Disaster Distress Helpline: https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/disaster-distress-helpline
• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: https://988lifeline.org/
• Red Cross Disaster Relief: https://www.redcross.org/about-us/our-work/disaster-relief.html
• FEMA assistance after a Disaster: https://www.fema.gov/assistance
• FEMA disaster preparedness: https://www.ready.gov/

To lead differently requires grit. In a time where “difference” is still feared and excluded, today’s executive and government leaders must harness grit—which is unwavering courage and tenacity—to model and embrace differences in leadership. Government and industry senior leaders are positioned to continue disrupting the status quo among leadership ranks by creating and cultivating space for Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) and Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) individuals to lead at all levels in organizations. As a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) leader at Magellan Federal, I will share why BIPOC and AAPI leaders are critical to business success and offer ways to help senior leaders diversify those who occupy leadership positions.

Why BIPOC/AAPI Leadership is Business Critical

We all can agree that our world is constantly changing. As a nation, we are more diverse than ever. Still, the group of individuals who occupy leadership positions in many industries is quite homogenous, and the absence of adequate representation across leadership tiers in industries is, unfortunately, not new. Nevertheless, in the wake of a global pandemic, political and social upheaval, and a period that is being called “the great resignation,” the call for representation among leadership has increased and intensified.

Senior leaders are having to re-examine how they perceive and practice leadership to secure the long-term success and health of their organization as employees place greater demands on them to be more diverse and inclusive among leadership ranks. While many senior leaders embrace the idea of diversity, they sometimes grapple with understanding and articulating the nuanced need for and importance of diverse leadership.

One reason more leaders from BIPOC and AAPI communities are critical to the health of organizations is because BIPOC and AAPI leaders—like other people groups—approach leadership from their own diasporic lens. Historically, mainstream leadership in our nation has been largely shaped by Eurocentric ideals, views, and experiences. However, as organizations and businesses become more and more of a microcosm of the diverse world around us, our view and expression of leadership must evolve to reflect the diverse environment in which people work.

Additionally, BIPOC and AAPI leaders are critical to long-term business health because BIPOC and AAPI communities have unique lived experiences that inform how they show up in the workplace. When people come to work, they tend to bring their values, lived experiences, and cultural roots with them to varying degrees. In organizations where difference is embraced and celebrated, individuals are more likely to share their authentic selves, which has the capacity to enrich collaboration and team environments. Moreover, when BIPOC and AAPI leaders have the freedom to lead authentically by leveraging their lived experiences, they can positively contribute to organizational outcomes by modeling and establishing the possibilities of an inclusive culture.

While there are many more reasons BIPOC and AAPI leaders are critical to the health of organizations, it is not enough to simply recognize their importance. Senior leaders must take steps to create and cultivate space for diversified leadership.

How to Diversify Organizational Leadership

For senior leaders, creating space for diverse forms and expressions of leadership will require a great deal of personal introspection along with a commitment to examine the way business is done in one’s organization. The following list is only a handful of actions senior leaders can begin to take to diversify their leadership.

1. Confront Your Embedded View of Leadership. If we are honest, many of us are still discovering and shaping our personal commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Contrary to popular belief, this is good because it takes time. However, senior leaders should proactively and diligently confront their personal views, thoughts, assumptions, and ideologies regarding leadership. We all have embedded cognitive scaffolding that creates mental shortcuts to aid in quick decisions. The consistent mental effort required to work against this scaffolding is admittedly rigorous but is critical to identifying biases and errors in our thinking about leadership.
2. Examine What Behaviors and Attributes are Rewarded. When building culture, it is important to know that in many cases, what leaders reward—consciously and unconsciously—influences what is repeated in the organization. Observe how (or if) divergent, yet productive forms of leadership are positively highlighted. Take note of how the word “leader” is ascribed to behaviors. When someone offers a contrasting view, do you or other leaders verbalize their thought leadership to signal that this is a welcomed form of leadership?
3. Adopt a Positive Psychology (Asset-focus) Lens. Historically, psychology has taken a deficit or pathological view when examining and seeking to understand human thought, effect, and behavior. Such a view is also prevalent in our day-to-day endeavors. We tend to gravitate to what is deemed “normal” and reject what is “different,” leading to the tendency to want to put everyone in a familiar group to reduce their degree of difference. Senior leaders can adopt a positive psychology lens and decide to elevate and affirm differences as strengths or assets instead of requiring individuals to conform to normative or traditional forms of leading that can exclude and disenfranchise entire groups.
4. Examine Who is in Your Proximity. By nature, we tend to interact most with those who are in proximity to us. When we diversify leadership at all tiers in an organization, we diversify who is in proximity to employees. Similarly, as a senior leader, diversifying who is in proximity to you can help broaden your worldview, allow you to see and hear new perspectives, and learn about existing realities among your employees that may not have been previously apparent.

 Conclusion

Since the mid-1800s there have been major advances and iterations of leadership theory. Individuals have made it their life’s work to understand and improve how we lead, and we are making progress, but there is still much more work to do, and it requires conscious effort.

What is abundantly clear is that senior leaders who dare to lead differently are always learning how to lead more inclusively and equitably. To make strides in our diversity among leaders across government and industry, we need to remember that all people groups bring distinction to leadership that is informed by their diasporic lens and current lived experiences. Bringing the collective experiences of all people to the forefront and allowing others to lead who have historically been regulated to only the opportunity of followership, will help engage your employees, and ultimately strengthen your relationships as well as your business. It’s a win-win for everyone.

According to Gallup®, 70% of the population is struggling or suffering, and 70% of employees are not engaging at work. Investing in wellbeing at work is critical to the success of your employees and organization.

The impact of wellbeing extends far beyond how employees feel — it affects the number of sick days they take, their job performance, burnout levels, retention rates and the organization’s bottom line.

We will dive into these issues in this blog post, and you can learn by listening to the webinar recording: “eMbrace the link between employee engagement and wellbeing.”  Click here to access the recording.

Organizations should care about wellbeing

Contrary to what many believe, wellbeing is not just about being happy or physically fit. Wellbeing encompasses all aspects of our lives:  how our lives are going, feeling good about our thoughts life experiences and what is important to us.

Poor wellbeing affects employees and organizations:

• 75% of medical costs accrued are due to largely preventable conditions.
• $20 million of additional lost opportunity for every 10,000 workers due to struggling or suffering employees.
• $322 billion of turnover and lost productivity costs globally due to employee burnout.

 In contrast, employees with high wellbeing are more resilient during widespread or personal tough times, less likely to have unplanned days out of the office and more engaged than those with low wellbeing.

Traditional EAPs are not enough

Traditional Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) fall short because they average about 5% engagement and focus mainly on distressed employees. Low utilization and a reactive model leave a large gap to fill to meet the wellbeing needs of all employees. Organizations need a proactive program that benefits all employees.

Learn more in the webinar recording.

Building a thriving culture of wellbeing

Leaders that bring engagement and wellbeing together create a high-performance environment where the two inform and build on one another. Magellan Healthcare and Gallup® collaborated to create eMbrace, a fully integrated, evidence-based solution delivering improved employee wellbeing and engagement across six key areas of their lives: Emotional, Career, Social, Financial, Physical and Community.

Through eMbrace, employees and organizations can measure their wellbeing and discover where they are suffering, struggling, and thriving. Employees receive a personalized plan that guides them to services and resources to help them improve their total wellbeing and lead thriving lives.

Resources:

• https://www.gallup.com/workplace/215924/well-being.aspx
• https://www.gallup.com/workplace/320297/invest-employees-wellbeing-afford-not.aspx
• https://www.gallup.com/workplace/358082/struggling-suffering-employees-twice-likely-leave.aspx

As I entered the workforce, I was drawn to work for an organization supporting the military and their families. Magellan Federal’s founding history as a non-profit and mission focus on improving the lives of the military and their families inspired me and has kept me engaged as an employee for 22 years. Service is embedded in our culture—you are surrounded by people who are passionate about giving back to others, especially those who are connected to military service. I’m proud to be a part of an organization that attracts individuals searching for meaning and purpose in their careers, and I’d like to share how volunteering has helped me find even greater personal and professional satisfaction.

Connecting to a Cause

As a military family member myself, with personal experience in the challenges of military life, Magellan Federal was a natural fit for me. I began my career in Member Services, helping active duty, veterans, and family members understand the benefits they were entitled to. Over the years I became a military benefits expert providing guidance on topics ranging from health care, life insurance, dependent entitlements, and survivor benefits. The tragic events of 9/11 led me to my calling of working to support military survivors.

My passion for volunteerism started early on in my career at Magellan Federal (at the time called Armed Forces Services Corporation). I was fortunate to work with leaders and mentors who volunteered often and put a high value on honoring the military community by giving back. This mentality encouraged me to incorporate volunteerism into my life as well. One influential leader was a Board Member at the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) and educated our team on their mission and volunteer opportunities. I connected to the TAPS organization immediately and their noble purpose of providing compassionate care to all those grieving the death of a military loved one. I began volunteering for TAPS in the early 2000s because their mission aligned with my desire to help military survivors.

At first, I was unsure if I could make a difference by volunteering, but I soon learned that non-profits like TAPS not only appreciate but rely on any time and help that their volunteers give—whether folding t-shirts, welcoming survivors to an event, writing correspondence, or running in a 5k to fundraise. According to the Nonprofit Leadership Center as of April 2022, the estimated value of each volunteer hour is $29.95. This is a good reminder that no matter what level of service you provide, the simple act of volunteering your time brings a huge value.

The Real Reward

Volunteering for organizations whose mission I care about has given me validation as a contributor but also, I have made lifelong friends. I recognized my professional skills translated well to lending my free time to help organize and implement improvements to non-profit programs. I have volunteered over the years for my daughter’s community recreation dance program and my son’s Little League team by managing their website and programs. I volunteer annually at the Virginia Scottish Games to connect with our family’s heritage. It is very rewarding to give time to these programs that get our community active and involved in the arts, recreation, and sports. While the tangible value of volunteering to me is using my creativity and innovation for the greater good, the feel-good factor is priceless.

I’ve also found that volunteering has benefited me socially in my career and personal life. I have expanded my sense of purpose and community, improved my social skills and self-esteem, learned new skills, and developed an overall happier outlook on life.

Where to Start

Having a formal volunteer program within your organization can be extremely valuable. At Magellan, we are lucky to have a robust volunteer program that is supported at every level of the organization. Not every company has that, and that’s OK. You can start small, connect with others, encourage involvement, and get more organized around your activities. I think you’ll find that volunteering is contagious and can help spread a culture of caring within your career as well as your community.

Through our Magellan Cares Foundation, qualified charity donations made by staff are eligible for matching funds. Full-time employees are also eligible for 8 hours of volunteer time off—paid leave for volunteer activities. We also have a central portal where our employees can record volunteer hours, connect with other givers, and search for or organize events. I love that Magellan makes it easy for employees to give back and encourages us to deepen our ties to the communities we serve.  As another great mentor once said, “working and leading with a servant’s heart will give you and your team fulfillment.”

I think we could all use a little more of that in our lives.

Article originally published on MFed Inform.

References

• https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/what-are-benefits-of-volunteering
• https://nlctb.org/tips/value-of-volunteer-time/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIjIzsyOOC-gIVA-TICh3b9gi1EAAYASAAEgK4o_D_BwE
• https://hbr.org/2021/01/volunteer-programs-that-employees-can-get-excited-about#:~:text=Many%20studies%20have%20shown%20that,they%20performed%20on%20work%20tasks.

What is it and how to get started

Mindfulness has become a popular topic over the last decade, and for good reason. A growing body of research is showing incredible health, performance, and relationship benefits to adopting the practice. But what exactly is mindfulness and how does one practice it?

Mindfulness is a particular way of focusing on the present moment without judgment. It is a skill, a practice, and a state that helps counteract our brain’s natural tendency to time travel back into the past or ahead into the future. Being in the present moment more often is what enables us to build meaningful relationships and perform at our best.

Unfortunately, most of us are more familiar with not being in the present moment. Research suggests we spend nearly 50% of our time thinking about something other than what we are doing. It’s when you arrive home from work excited to see your family and just as you sit down at the dinner table you remember an email you forgot to reply to and suddenly you’ve missed your kid sharing the best part of their day. Or it’s the moment you’re at work trying to focus during a meeting and your mind wanders back to an argument you had with your spouse that morning. It can also be the moment when you are sitting down to finish a report, but you begin daydreaming about your upcoming vacation. And it’s a hundred moments in between.

Understanding Mindfulness
Mindfulness is the practice of catching our minds when they wander and intentionally bringing them back to where we are—put simply: it’s the practice of being present. The more we practice, the more quickly we’re able to reestablish our mind in the present moment before it impacts relationships or performance.

To be truly mindful is to be able to recognize as your mind wanders away from the here and now, accept the wandering, and recenter your mind back to the present to be where your feet are.

Mindfulness has a long and rich history dating back more than 2,500 years. While this may activate images of ancient monks in stillness and solitude, in the last 15 years, an enormous amount of rigorous research has been conducted supporting the benefits of a mindfulness practice—many that are particularly relevant to thriving in our fast-paced, always-on culture.

Mindfulness Benefits
Mindfulness has been shown to act as a buffer against cognitive anxiety, improve memory and learning, improve sleep, and reduce fatigue. It is also associated with increased frequency in optimal performance states, improved performance in high-intensity contexts, and better regulation of emotion and stress. Importantly, these benefits can be realized without spending hours upon hours a day in silent meditation. Mindfulness training research suggests that 8-20 minutes a day is all you need to see meaningful benefits. If you want a more exact prescription, Dr. Amishi Jha, one of the leading mindfulness researchers, has determined that 12 minutes a day, five days a week is the most effective “dose.” It balances what time-pressed people will actually commit to and it benefits their attention.

Getting Started
Magellan Federal is the world’s largest single employer of professionals with specialized training in performance psychology coaching. Our cognitive performance coaches have delivered education and training to more than 2.7 million within the Army population in the past five years. Here are some simple exercises our coaches teach to help build positive mindfulness habits:

• Practice 1 minute of mindful breathing. Set a timer for one minute and simply turn your attention to your breath. What does it feel like to inhale? What does it feel like to exhale? Try pausing at the top and bottom of each breath. If you find 1 minute too easy, aim for 3 minutes or more.
• Practice mindfulness during everyday activities. For example, while washing the dishes focus on the temperature of the water, the slipperiness of the soap, the sound of the dishes. Every time your mind wanders to something else (as it naturally will), gently guide it back to the dishes. Surprisingly, even for menial tasks like dishes, people who focus on the task, instead of daydreaming, report greater levels of happiness.
• Conduct a brief body scan. Find a quiet place to sit, start with a few mindful breaths, and then turn your attention to your body. Start at the top of your head and work downward, just noting what your body feels like. Don’t get stuck in any particular place; just notice comfort or discomfort and move on until you get to your toes. Finish with a few mindful breaths.

Know that as you try any of these activities, your mind will wander; it is completely natural. Mindfulness is the practice of gently bringing your mind back to your target. Each time your mind wanders, think of it as a repetition to strengthen the skill of returning to the present moment.

Making it Stick — Find or Build a Community of Support
Like most new habits, developing a mindfulness practice can be tricky. Research has shown that learning with and from others on a similar path has a staggering effect on success.

Magellan Federal believes in a human-centered approach when building new habits like mindfulness. We are currently developing a solution that models the success we have found through our work with the Army, which will incorporate live coaching sessions and a community of support to further enhance successful habit change. Finding or building a group or partnership that supports your mindfulness goals and offers encouragement and motivation along the way will make you more likely to succeed in creating mindfulness habits that stick. You might consider adding a mindful minute with your family before dinner, starting a team meeting with a mindfulness practice, or finding your own unique way to build community around mindfulness practice.

Learn More
Magellan Federal’s holistic approach seeks to help people not only improve performance, but health, relationships, and culture—and mindfulness is a key piece of the puzzle for many people. If you are Interested in starting a mindfulness practice or connecting to a community of support, contact us today.

Article originally published on MFed Inform.