Depression Screening Saves Money for Employers

Clinical Psychiatry News: "For employers, the savings generated by a low-intensity depression screening and management program for workers more than offset the costs, according to Dr. Philip S. Wang of Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, and his associates.
The researchers examined the economic costs and benefits of a workplace depression intervention from the perspectives of society as a whole and of employers. They devised a statistical model comparing usual care—that is, care-seeking and treatment patterns that typically occur in the absence of a workplace program—with a program comprising a one-time workplace quick screen for depression followed by telephone “care management” by master's-level clinicians."