“Most health insurance plans cover physical therapy, but mental health therapy is often overlooked. Discover how one restaurant group is bridging the gap — and why.”<\/p>\n
\u201cHow are you?\u201d \u201cHow\u2019s it going?\u201d \u201cWhat\u2019s up?\u201d Restaurant workers are asked these questions almost every day by colleagues, managers, and even owners. But is the question merely, \u201cHow are you?\u201d or is it \u201cHow are you <\/span>really<\/span><\/i>?\u201d For Dan Simons, co-owner of the <\/span>Farmers Restaurant Group<\/span><\/a>, it is the latter. He\u2019s not asking rhetorical questions; he truly wants to know what\u2019s going on with staffers and how he can help. But with more than 1,000 employees, can anyone know what\u2019s happening with each individual at any given time?<\/span><\/p>\n Enter <\/span>TalkSpace<\/span><\/a>, the leading online counseling service, that offers sessions via text, audio, or video messaging. Farmers Restaurant Group has signed up with the company to provide on-demand, online counseling for all employees \u2013 as well as their family members (age 13 and over).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n While the conversation around mental health awareness may seem new-ish thanks to the recent frankness on the part of high-profile athletes and celebs, people have always struggled with stress, anxiety, and more. When Simons was part of the T.G.I.Friday\u2019s manager-in-training program 30 years ago, he could see his fellow workers\u2019 challenges. \u201cIt\u2019s always been obvious to me when someone is struggling. You can\u2019t be a restaurant manager and not take notice,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And, given his experience, the issue isn\u2019t at all new or any more widespread. Rather, he notes, \u201cI don\u2019t think it is any worse today than thirty years ago. It\u2019s always been there, only now, people are willing to talk about it.\u201d Certainly, he concedes, \u201cThe pandemic definitely layered in a level of deep stress and feelings of a lack of control. It was a magnifier and accelerant for anxieties and struggles. Even for people who have never been rattled by the roller coaster of life \u2013 they got rattled, too!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n For Simons, the appeal of TalkSpace to help employees thrive personally and professionally was its ease of adoption. \u201cWhat was neat to me was lowering or eliminating the barrier to entry to receive therapy. When people need a hand up, the question you need to ask yourself isn\u2019t, \u2018Where are they?\u2019 It\u2019s, \u2018How long is my arm? How easy is it for someone in need to grab the first rung of a ladder that leads to help?\u2019\u201d he says. Even when something is free, it has to be accessible \u2013 and almost instant. Simons says, \u201cWe often use the word \u2018literally\u2019 incorrectly, but if your fingers can reach your phone, therapy is literally within a finger\u2019s reach! That\u2019s the part that has motivated me to make it available to our team.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n TalkSpace also offers bilingual options, which is a boon for non-native English speakers, removing yet another barrier to entry for staffers and their families.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Another benefit to \u201cvirtual\u201d therapy with TalkSpace is that it is available whenever you are. With traditional face-to-face weekly or bi-weekly therapy, a client needs to sit with their pressing issues until their next appointment. With TalkSpace, if a user reaches out in a moment of need, someone will be there. \u201cIt\u2019s a funny thing, right? It can happen in a therapy appointment where you\u2019re just getting into something and the therapist will say, \u2018Our time is up!\u2019 and you\u2019re thinking, \u2018Wait, I\u2019m just getting started!\u2019 So this model is appealing because you can get therapy at the moment you need it when you\u2019re at your most communicative; you don\u2019t have to get yourself into an introspective place once a week at a certain time,\u201d Simons says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He also points to the benefit of people not having to travel for therapy. \u201cOne of the silver linings of the pandemic is that it\u2019s been an accelerant for access to things like this. Even without a pandemic, should you spend an hour driving to your therapist\u2019s office every time?\u201d he wonders.<\/span><\/p>\n Simons and his group decided to offer TalkSpace to not just employees but also their families. As the conversation about the lack of access to mental health services remains a hot-button issue in the U.S., Simons opened the gates to all. \u201cWhen you see someone struggling at work, it\u2019s often a family member who needs help that your team member is worried about. If you\u2019re living with someone with depression, that\u2019s going to trigger additional anxiety and worry because it\u2019s someone you care about,\u201d he notes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He believes if they had gated access to employees only, \u201cWe\u2019d have been treating the symptom, but not the cause. The cause is what everyone in the family needs to identify and treat. Our employees are each a whole person, and their families are a part of that. To pretend otherwise is absurd.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Just because staffers and their families have access to TalkSpace, it doesn\u2019t mean Simons and management have checked out of checking in. On the contrary, leadership is always working to hone their emotional intelligence. Simons says, \u201cWe went from metaphorically taking everyone\u2019s temperature before every shift \u2013 looking people in the eye, greeting them, checking in authentically \u2013 to physically taking their temperature, but now that we\u2019re back to the metaphorical, it\u2019s more important than ever.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Staffers engage in role-playing around getting people to be transparent about what is happening in their lives. \u201cYou have to check in during shift meetings, during work, after work. And if you\u2019re a leader and you\u2019re having an off day, we encourage you to tell your team you\u2019re a little down. You\u2019ll be amazed how your team will pick you up and you\u2019ll be amazed at the power of modeling that vulnerability to your teammates,\u201d he states.<\/span><\/p>\n TalkSpace is still a relatively new benefit at the Farmers Restaurant Group, which includes several brands such as <\/span>Founding Farmers<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Farmers & Distillers<\/span><\/a> with locations in Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., and Virginia. While all sensitive data is confidential, Simons will be able to see overall adoption rates (numbers, not names) in the future \u2013 and he is hopeful that it will become widely utilized by employees and their family members. It is part of employee orientation, and Simons says, \u201cI want this to gain momentum and become ubiquitous like physical therapy. Physical therapy is everywhere! If you can go for PT, why can\u2019t you go for MT?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n However many employees take advantage of TalkSpace, Simons and his team will continue to practice emotional intelligence and check in with staff in a meaningful way. \u201cIf you ask someone if they\u2019re okay, and they say, \u2018No, I\u2019m fine,\u2019 don\u2019t stop there. That\u2019s where the magic happens. You\u2019ve got to stop, face them, and take a deep breath. Then they\u2019ll take a deep breath. And you tell them, \u2018I\u2019m going to listen because I can see something is going on with you and I\u2019m not going to accept that you\u2019re fine.\u2019 It may take a few prompts, but people want to spill it. And here, we\u2019re going to make it safe for them and it\u2019s going to be even better going forward,\u201d he states. And if managers are unable to make in-roads in that manner? \u201cThat\u2019s when we\u2019re like, you should check out TalkSpace!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n About Brizo Data, Inc.:<\/b>\u00a0Brizo Data helps the foodservice industry by providing the strategic data you need to win in your market. We empower restaurant vendors and restauranteurs with better data for Business Intelligence, Market Research, and Competitive Analysis. Brizo monitors the online footprint of every food serving establishment in the US and Canada \u2013 from social media presence, online reviews, menu items, market composition, and even technological choices.<\/p>\n Most health insurance plans cover physical therapy, but mental health therapy is often overlooked. Discover how one restaurant group is bridging the gap — and why.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1272,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bfm"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTale As Old as (Dinner) Time<\/b><\/h3>\n
It\u2019s So Easy<\/b><\/h3>\n
Any Time, Anywhere<\/b><\/h3>\n
All in the Family<\/b><\/h3>\n
TalkSpace and the Restaurant Space<\/b><\/h3>\n
MT as the New PT<\/b><\/h3>\n
\nFor more information, questions or to set up a free trial contact\u00a0cheers@brizodata.com<\/a>\u00a0or click here \u2018Get Started for FREE<\/a>\u2019 .<\/em><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"