New research from Modern Health reveals how integrated, adaptive mental health care improves outcomes for employees managing both physical and mental health conditions—creating measurable gains in resilience, productivity, and symptom improvement.
Written by Dr. Sara Sagui Henson, Associate Principal Research Scientist at Modern Health.
In our latest study, 44% of employees actively engaging with Modern Health were managing a chronic physical condition such as hypertension, cancer, diabetes, sleep apnea, or chronic pain.
More importantly, nearly a quarter of all participants—23%—were managing co-occurring conditions: both elevated mental health symptoms and a chronic physical condition at the same time.
For these employees, the relationship between mental and physical health is not linear—it’s cyclical. Each condition can exacerbate the other, creating patterns that can be challenging to break without support that adapts as needs change.
As a research health psychologist, I’ve seen how this dynamic shows up across workplaces every day.
To understand what living with co-occurring conditions might look like, imagine an employee with both hypertension and anxiety—someone who worries that physical exertion might trigger a heart attack. To avoid that possibility, they stop exercising.
Their anxiety spikes, sleep deteriorates, and they begin skipping medication doses. The pattern intensifies until one day, chest tightness sends them to the emergency room.
Traditional care models address these issues separately—cardiology for blood pressure, therapy for anxiety. But treating one without addressing the other overlooks the tight interconnection between them.
Modern Health’s Adaptive Care Model is designed to support this complexity.
In our research, participants with access to Modern Health’s Adaptive Care Model experienced something different. They could begin engaging with mental health support however they felt most comfortable—perhaps with a coach to build healthy routines or a therapist to manage anxiety—and supplement that care with digital tools between sessions.
Over time, someone like this might begin with coaching to rebuild daily structure, transition into therapy to process health-related fears, and use digital tools to practice relaxation or breathing exercises in the moment. As their confidence grows, they resume exercise, manage medication consistently, and avoid unnecessary ER visits.
This kind of integrated, flexible support is what the adaptive model is designed to provide—and what traditional systems rarely achieve.
In our 12-month observational study of 534 employees using Modern Health,
This co-occurring group became the focus of our analysis.
Because Modern Health’s Adaptive Care Model integrates therapy, coaching, and digital tools in one connected ecosystem, members could begin anywhere and move fluidly among modalities as their needs changed. That flexibility drove broad, personalized engagement:
Within three months:
At twelve months:
These improvements extended beyond symptoms into daily functioning:
This means employees weren’t just feeling better—they were functioning better at work and in life.
When we examined why progress held steady over a full year, one factor emerged above all others: distress tolerance—the ability to experience difficult emotions without becoming overwhelmed or avoidant.
Improvements in distress tolerance accounted for 97% of the long-term improvement in social functioning.
This finding underscores a key insight: Adaptive, multimodal care doesn’t just reduce symptoms—it builds the emotional regulation skills employees need to handle stress, uncertainty, and physical health challenges over time.
Although it may sound clinical, distress tolerance is simply everyday resilience.
At work, it shows up as:
These are foundational competencies that reinforce performance, culture, and retention.
When employees build these skills, companies benefit through steadier teams, fewer spikes in absenteeism, and improved productivity.
For HR and benefits leaders, this research highlights why care systems must adapt to the real complexity that employees face, not just the crises that are visible on the surface.
Nearly a quarter of employees in care are managing both mental and physical health conditions. Supporting that reality can prevent escalating costs and disengagement.
Therapy, coaching, and digital tools each meet different needs. Offering flexible combinations ensures more employees engage earlier.
Building distress tolerance and emotional regulation helps employees sustain progress—and brings measurable returns through productivity and well-being.
As I often tell leaders: this isn’t only about treating illness; it’s about building capacity.
When employees strengthen both their emotional and physical well-being, they’re better equipped to handle change, complexity, and stress across all aspects of life and work.
That’s not just better health care. It’s a smarter investment in the workforce.
Learn, connect, and see how adaptive mental health care works for organizations and individuals alike.
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