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Mental Health and Financial Wellbeing of the Construction Industry
By Arthur Chung
As the COVID-19 pandemic evolves we remain committed to reducing the mental and financial burden facing the construction industry. It is wellknown that financial stress and mental health are connected. Add on the layer of a pandemic and we have a recipe for increased anxiety in the populous. It is imperative for us to support construction industry employers, their employees, and their families during these times of uncertainty by providing a variety of mental health resources through our Employee and Family Assistance Program and through our COVID-19 Crisis Relief Plan.
Mental health resources
We provide our members with quality mental health resources as stress, anxiety, and depression increase through the pandemic. Our Employee and Family Assistance Program helps our members access counsellors to discuss their problems, provide actionable solutions to manage symptoms of stress and anxiety, and help them plan their financial futures through the Credit Counselling Society. We also provide access to a series of webinars on various mental health topics related to COVID-19 to plan administrators.
More recently, we introduced our members to BEACON, which provides guided digital therapy and Stronger Minds, a free set of modules for self-help. We are proud to announce that guided digital therapy is now covered under our plans.
COVID-19 Crisis Relief Plan
The COVID-19 Crisis Relief Plan was a temporary measure to help our members maintain benefits for their employees and their families through premium and plan administration relief. The plan was introduced on April 1 in anticipation of decreased access to health and wellness services. We understand that business priorities are changing in order to manage costs, sustain operations, and keep employees working. We also understand the stress of the looming uncertainty surrounding the economic effects of the pandemic, so we acted quickly to help our members. Through the Crisis Relief Plan, we implemented significant rate reductions with extended health care rates reduced up to 40 per cent, and dental rates reduced up to 70 per cent. This helped reduce the financial burden on our members, resulting in saving an aggregate of $2.7 million dollars in the first four months of the pandemic.
We are thankful for the support of our regional construction associations for helping us share mental and financial health resources with the construction industry when needed most. We are also grateful to our plan members for allowing us the privilege of taking care of their teams throughout these unprecedented times.
For more information on benefit plans offered by the BCCA Employee Benefit Trust visit bccabenefits.ca, email info@ bccabenefits.ca, or call 1-800-665-1077.
The BCCA Employee Benefit Trust (EBT) was established over 50 years ago with the mission to look after the health and wellbeing of employees in the construction industry. As an organization responsible for the lives of 7,000 employees under 500 employers, we continue to work towards this end, particularly during these unprecedented times.
