Workplaces are uniquely positioned to reduce suicide risk. Learn how timely access, strong culture, and Modern Health’s Adaptive Care Model save lives.
Marcus is a 42-year-old customer service supervisor. He’s balancing long shifts, rising rent, and care for his elderly parents. Over the past few months, his migraines have worsened, and he’s been sleeping less and less. He still shows up to work every day, determined to keep his team afloat, but colleagues notice he’s quieter in meetings and struggling to concentrate.
Like many employees under chronic stress, Marcus is at risk of reaching a breaking point. The weight of caregiving, financial strain, and sleepless nights has left him wondering how much longer he can keep going.
When Marcus decides to seek professional help, he runs into another barrier: navigating his health plan’s provider network. Finding an in-network clinician feels nearly impossible. When he does, the earliest appointment is five weeks away. For someone already nearing crisis, five weeks can feel like an eternity.
Marcus’s story is hypothetical, but all too common. According to the CDC, working-age adults comprise the majority of suicide deaths, with nearly 66% of suicides occurring among adults aged 25-64. Behind every statistic are people like Marcus, who carry invisible burdens with them—often into the workplace.
Some organizations are working to close this gap, ensuring employees can access help in days, not weeks. But speed alone isn’t enough. True prevention also requires addressing the conditions that put employees like Marcus at risk long before they reach a breaking point.
The scale of suicide is sobering: Globally, 1 in every 100 deaths was by suicide in 2021. An estimated 720,000 people die by suicide each year, with 20x this number thought to have attempted suicide.
For many, access to care is the critical inflection point. According to the World Health Organization, 73% of suicides occurred in low- and middle-income countries in 2021, where access to timely and affordable care is often most limited.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, over 122 million people in the United States live in areas with shortages of mental health care professionals, making telehealth options critical.
Yet even when care is available, wait times are daunting: the average delay for in-person psychiatric care is 67 days, and for psychiatry telehealth, it’s 43 days.
These delays are not just inconvenient; they’re dangerous for employees needing care. This makes the choices employers make about mental health and well-being critical, as the right approach can enable employees to access timely care when it matters most.
Timely access is essential, but speed alone doesn’t prevent suicide risk. The environment employees return to every day—the expectations, culture, and support systems they encounter within the workplace—play a major role.
HR leaders and managers are not clinicians, but they do shape the policies and cultures that can either mitigate or magnify suicide risk.
And employees are paying attention. According to the APA, 81% of workers say they’ll prioritize employers that support mental health in their next job search.
Workplace conditions themselves can raise the stakes. Research links job strain—high demands with low control—to a higher risk of suicide. Toxic cultures compound the problem: Employees who describe their workplace as toxic are three times more likely to report mental health harm.
This is why structural support matters. 77% of employees say they’ve worked through a mental health crisis rather than take time away. When HR and benefits leaders provide easy entry points to care, employees are more likely to access help before they reach a breaking point.
For organizational leaders, suicide prevention means ensuring benefit design, vendor standards, and workplace culture actively reduce risk and connect employees to care.
When we talk about suicide prevention, it’s easy to picture only crisis hotlines or inpatient care. These interventions are vital, but prevention starts earlier and extends further.
An employee like Marcus may not meet the criteria for acute psychiatric care, but his worsening insomnia, financial strain, and caregiving responsibilities are risk factors that can tip into suicidality without timely support.
This is why employers must think beyond moments of crisis and toward comprehensive well-being strategies.
Prevention requires reaching people across the spectrum of well-being needs, rather than focusing solely on the small fraction already in crisis.
For global workforces, culturally-relevant care is just as critical as timely access. Stigma, language, local regulations, and workplace norms differ widely across regions. Employees are more likely to engage with care when providers understand their culture, communicate in their language, and respect the social context they live in.
For HR and Total Rewards leaders, this means evaluating vendors not only on speed to care but also on their ability to deliver culturally inclusive solutions at scale.
So what does suicide prevention look like in practice for organizations? Here are tangible steps to take:
Managers don’t need to be clinicians, but they do need clarity on how to act. This four-level guide offers a practical framework you can adapt with your organization’s benefits provider.
Example: A team member says, “I don’t think I can stop myself from hurting myself.”
Response: Call 988 (US) or your local emergency number right away, and follow your organization’s escalation protocol.
Example: A team member says, “I feel like everyone would be better off without me.”
Response: Take it seriously. Share crisis hotlines and refer them to professional help through your benefits.
Example: A team member has stopped speaking up in meetings and seems to be withdrawing.
Response: Listen without judgment and encourage them to connect with available support (e.g., coaching, counseling, or therapy through your benefits).
Example: A team member says, “I’m feeling really anxious about work.”
Response: Proactively check in, start a supportive conversation, and remind them of resources available through your organization or well-being benefits.
In addition to critical indicators, such as talking about suicide or wanting to die, seeking methods for self-harm, or expressing feelings of hopelessness, be aware of other early indicators that may show up in speech, behavior, or emotions. Here are a few examples:
When paired with clear organizational policies, this framework ensures managers feel confident supporting employees while guiding them toward professional help.
Every employee deserves fast, reliable access to care. That’s why Modern Health partners with organizations to close the access gap and deliver support when it matters most:
These offerings are part of Modern Health’s Adaptive Care Model, a framework designed to serve the full spectrum of workforce needs, from preventive coaching and resilience-building to clinical care.
With this model, organizations can support all of their workforce, ensuring that employees receive the right care at the right time, no matter where they fall on the well-being continuum.
*Time-to-care is calculated as the average time to the first available appointment presented to a Modern Health member.
