High Point, N.C., employees often visit the city's health clinic for everything from flu vaccinations to programs for losing weight and improving physical stamina. But, what really excites them is that every couple of weeks, they leave their desks for a special treat: A 20-minute chair massage. “It's a great stress reliever,” says John McCrary, the city's human resources director.

Chair massages might seem an unusual employee benefit, but not to Melanie Kroecker, human resources director for the Fort Worth, Texas, Transportation Authority. Though her employees are not covered by High Point's health provider, work in vastly different jobs and are 1,000 miles away, they get chair massages, too. “It helps relieve stress,” she says, echoing McCrary.

Such an approach — paying attention to an employee's mental health as well as their physical wellbeing — is part of a growing trend of breaking down the barriers in the delivery of traditional employee health care. Rather than simply paying to treat illnesses, employers are looking for ways to attack the root causes, including the mental context that may underlie an ailment, like stress and depression.

Many have created Employee Assistance Programs to attend to employees' entire health needs, often including mental health services. The programs are aimed at preventing all types of conditions and focusing on how to speed recovery once an illness or injury strikes. The changes are not only improving employee health and productivity, they are saving employers money.

One mind, one body

More than two-thirds of 450 major American employers plan to take more aggressive steps to help employees improve their health by increasing education efforts and implementing behavior modification programs, according to a recent survey by Hewitt Associates, a Lincolnshire, Ill.-based human resources services company. The survey found that employers “are developing multi-year, holistic health care programs that drive behavior change by targeting the health and health risk needs of their diverse workforce.”

The transition to a broader array of employee health benefits reflects the view taking hold in the medical community that for too long it has ignored the mind-body connection, according to experts in the field. “There's this business that the body is on one side, and the mind is on the other,” says Dr. Sharon Brehm, immediate past president of the Washington-based American Psychological Association (APA) and an Indiana University faculty member. “But, we're packaged in the same body.”

The relationship between the mental and physical condition of a patient has real consequences on his or her overall wellbeing, says Dr. Toni Antonucci, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan's Institute of Social Research. “There's a lot of evidence that people under stress are more likely to get a cold, and people who don't have good support systems are more susceptible to illnesses,” she says. “We need to look at the complete picture. The body and mind are linked.”

Public employers are helping their employees lead healthier lives, often working with their health care providers. Almost as a byproduct, employees become better workers with a brighter outlook on their jobs. And, although Bloomfield, Conn.-based Cigna estimates that employers save $2 for each dollar they spend on wellness programs, McCrary insists that is not the primary motivator for High Point's program. “We're not doing this to control costs,” he says. “It's the right thing to do. If employees are healthy, they're more productive, and feel better about themselves and come to work more often.”

As evidence, McCrary notes that 325 employees who have participated in health and wellness programs with Cigna, the city's health benefits provider, have lost a total of almost two tons of weight, averaging almost 12 pounds each, with some losing as much as 60 pounds. “People feel better about themselves,” he says. “Some come into my office to thank me, and some have even gone to the city council.”