According to the American Psychiatric Association, the cost of depression in the American workplace is in excess of $200 billion annually. These costs are associated with medical expenses, absenteeism, presenteeism, disability costs, costs related to suicide, and other workplace burdens. With a prevalence rate of nearly 8% among full-time workers, no workplace is immune from the impact of depression.

Learning Objectives

• Currently accepted causes and treatments of depression.
• Risk factors associated with the onset of depression.
• Strategies for educating your workplace about depression.
• Recommendations to help employees access treatment.
• Learn tips about how to mitigate the impacts of depression in the workplace!

About the Presenter: Mark Meier, MSW, LCSW

Mark is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over with over 25 years of clinical, professional, and academic training on depression, to go along with a deeply personal understanding of the impact depression has on families and workplaces when left unrecognized and untreated. In 2009 Mark co-founded the Face It Foundation to provide free support services to men who deal with depression and who have survived suicide attempts.

Today Face It serves over 100 men each month with support groups, retreats, education classes, and social activities. In addition to his full-time work at Face It, Mark is on staff in the University of Minnesota’s School of Medicine – Department of Family Medicine and Community Health and an advisor for multiple research studies on depression through the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Mark has delivered over 350 talks across the United States on depression and he openly speaks about his own battle with depression that resulted in his hospitalization in 2002.

Mark believes it’s his own experience with depression that has best positioned him to help others.