How Employers Can Better Support Employees with Migraine Disease
Employers are constantly looking for ways to augment their benefits packages to help their employees be happy and productive. Yet, there’s one major population that is often overlooked: employees with migraine.
One in six U.S. workers live with migraine disease, so most employers have multiple team members who are affected, and there is a lot that employers can do to help with relatively little investment. However, since employers aren’t always aware of the prevalence of migraine, or don’t know the impact they can have, people living with the condition are forced to manage attacks at work with little to no support.
For employers who are looking to better support this population, it can be helpful to think of the relevant accommodations in three buckets:
- Assembling a comprehensive benefits package
- Creating an accommodating physical space
- Creating an accommodating culture
Assembling a Comprehensive Benefits Package
The most important change that an employer can make to help employees with migraine is to offer a comprehensive benefits package. For many with migraine, medication is the most impactful tool to help them remain productive at work. However, many of the most effective medications are hard to access, in part because they’ve only recently come on the market and require complex, time-consuming prior authorization and appeal processes to facilitate access. Including an expansive formulary list as part of a company’s benefits package can help overcome these access barriers and make it easier for employees to get the medications they need.
Getting time with a neurologist can also be a challenge, so ensuring employees have access to the right doctors is another key offering. Because the average wait to see a neurologist is 4-6 months, and most health plans have serious network gaps for neurology coverage, employers should consider augmenting their benefits with innovative digital health solutions. By leveraging specialty telehealth solutions, these solutions are able to provide access to qualified specialists with significantly lower wait times.
Access to the right care and medication can be the difference between an employee needing to leave the workforce and one who is able to stay and be a consistently productive contributor. Any employer who wants to better accommodate people with migraine should start here.
Creating an Accommodating Physical Space
People living with migraine or other headache disorders can have their attacks triggered by a variety of stimuli, but many of the triggers can be mitigated with some simple changes that employers can make to their office environment.
Providing sound-proof earbuds in a loud space, for instance, can provide audio protection. Creating a scent-free office, reducing harsh lighting and being empathetic to temperature requests can also help mitigate triggers. Plus, these changes stand to help not only those with migraine and headache, but can also positively impact a broader population of neurodivergent individuals and those with other chronic illnesses.
Another important accommodation is creating a wellness room where employees can rest during the workday. This allows employees to escape the broader office environments which may inevitably have triggers that could prompt an attack, and provides a quiet, dark space for those with migraine to use.
Creating an Accommodating Culture
While it’s vital that employers prioritize putting the right tools in place, those tools will be underutilized if employees don’t feel comfortable taking advantage of them due to stigma. That’s why it’s just as vital that employers establish a culture that allows people with chronic neurological conditions to feel comfortable using the benefits available.
Those benefits include the tangible items discussed already, like an accommodating space and access to proper benefits, but there are more elements to consider. Allowing a flexible schedule, which gives employees more control over when and where they work, can be hugely beneficial for people with migraine. Working from home allows a person to better control their environment and avoid triggers, while the ability to take breaks and work non-traditional hours allows them to take time to manage an attack or take time to call their insurance company or doctor without feeling judged.
Even beyond scheduling, ensuring employees don’t feel self-conscious about using visible tools, like wearing “headache hats,” neuromodulation devices or tinted glasses indoors, is also critical. Employers should be proactive about helping employees feel comfortable by demonstrating they understand that migraine is a serious neurological disease that often requires various treatments, and by educating other employees about the disease and tools to treat it in diversity and inclusion training.
Together, a comprehensive benefits package, migraine-friendly space and accommodating culture can create a workplace where people with migraine disease can thrive. They’ll be able to feel comfortable in the workplace and more effectively manage their disease so they can remain productive members of the workforce.
Elizabeth Burstein is CEO and Co-Founder of Neura Health.
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