Employers have stepped up their efforts to provide mental health benefits to their employees during the pandemic. But while subscriptions to meditation apps or stress management programs are critical in supporting emotional well-being, employers might be overlooking an increasingly dire problem:
Substance use disorders often stem from other mental health issues, including emotional distress, depression and anxiety, according to medical information platform Medline Plus. Twenty-two million people in the U.S. suffer from active
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This is a reality that Peter Loeb, CEO and cofounder of Lionrock Recovery — an organization that offers online substance abuse counseling — knows all too well and which led him to seek out ways to change the face of addiction treatment.
“Lionrock got started in late 2010, after my sister, who had struggled with substance use disorders most of her life, passed away at age 49,” Loeb says. “One of the underlying drivers can be genetic, my oldest daughter — who is now 16 years clean and sober — was addicted to opioids in her teens.”
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After seeking out treatment for his family members for years, Loeb said he saw a lot of room for improvement. His background in Silicon Valley showed Loeb how he could leverage technology to make recovery and care services more accessible and affordable, while protecting the privacy of those seeking help.
“It was really a question of harnessing the power of the internet to be able to bring treatment to where people were, and with the privacy and convenience that they need to get help,” he says.
Privacy can be a huge factor when it comes to seeking help for substance use disorders because there is still a severe social stigma that casts a shadow over addiction. Society tends to view people with addiction as “the hedonists you see living under a bridge somewhere, but in fact it's Tom down the hall who works in accounting,” Loeb says.
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Patients utilizing the Lionrock program are provided with intensive outpatient programs that provide addiction treatment from the privacy of their own home, as well as group and individual treatment options, including education and family counseling sessions.
As the pandemic placed greater stress on employees’ mental health, it became increasingly obvious that Lionrock’s services could help employees struggling with addiction. Lionrock has been offering its services as a benefit for about a year and has partnered with several employers.
“This is a perfect model for the employer setting,” says AJ Black, director of business development at Lionrock. “One, it lowers costs dramatically from what the existing inpatient treatment is, and two, it is so much easier to get access to treatment. It's a win-win thanks to earlier [treatment] intervention, lower costs and better outcomes.”
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As the demand for telemedicine remains high, Loeb understands the importance of offering a benefit that will provide early intervention and accessible treatment for those who need it.
“What we found over time, was that the people who were coming to us were unwilling to get help in a traditional setting,” Loeb says. “A lot of the assumptions surrounding substance use disorder care — like you have to hit rock bottom and you have to go away to rehab — are not really true. People are willing to get help earlier if we provide the right level of privacy and convenience and if we fit ourselves into their lives.”
