Why Mental Health Is a Crisis Management Focus
— Not an HR Initiative
Reframing mental health preparedness as good leadership and resilience building for organizations.
ARTICLE BY: Tashonda Haugabrook, Principal
Mental Health is Already in Your Crisis Plan, Ignoring it is the Risk
Every organizational crisis is, at its core, a human event.
Systems fail. Information moves too fast or not fast enough. Leaders are required to make decisions under pressure, with incomplete data, high stakes, and real consequences for people.
Yet most crisis management plans treat mental health as something adjacent—something to be addressed after the disruption, or managed elsewhere by HR, benefits providers, or wellness programs.
In reality, mental health is already embedded in crisis outcomes. The question is whether organizations plan for it deliberately—or leave it to chance.
MH Preparedness: The Risk That Keeps Landing on HR’s Plate
In the workplace, mental health is often categorized as:
A culture issue
A wellness initiative
An employee benefit
A post‑incident support service
The Dept. of Labor reported that 61% of all US workers had access to Employee Assistance Program (EAP), so many employers offer this consideration for employee mental health, at the very least.
These efforts do matter, but when mental health is framed exclusively this way, a critical gap emerges.
During an actual crisis, the primary risk around mental health is not emotional expression. The most pertinent risks are impaired judgment, degraded communication, and cognitive overload – especially at the leadership level.
These are not HR risks that can be mitigated with an EAP program or the ‘run of the mill’ equal employment opportunity trainings that we’ve become accustomed to.
These are operational and governance risks, that can result in major liabilities and loss if not tended to properly.
When organizations assume leaders will simply ‘rise to the occasion,’ they overlook a basic reality:
Stress alters how people think, communicate, and decide.
Stress is a Key Performance Risk
Decades of research and real‑world response experience show that acute stress affects:
Attention and situational awareness
Working memory and information processing
Risk perception
Communication clarity and tone
Impulse control and decision speed
Productivity
These functions sit at the heart of crisis leadership, and ultimately impact all employees in some way.
When these functions degrade, the consequences are predictable:
Conflicting messages
Delayed or reactive decisions
Escalation of fear and confusion
Preventable harm to people and reputation
Decreased productivity
Increased mistakes
Treating mental health as separate from crisis planning does not reduce this risk. It simply leaves it unmanaged.
Crisis Conditions Amplify Stress by 62%
Impacts from employee stress can escalate during a crisis situation.
62% of employees report elevated stress levels during organizational crises, characterized by extreme fatigue and loss of control—conditions that directly compromise decision-making capacity and operational continuity.
(Source: Recruiter.com)
How Crisis Ready Organizations Are Showing Up
Organizations that perform well under pressure do not rely on individual toughness or goodwill and call their people “prepared” because response plans exist. They are clear on the risks that arise when mental health preparedness is not a priority, and they’ve innovated their crisis management program to safeguard the human element.
Some actual practical steps that organizations are taking towards mental health preparedness today include:
Implementing awareness initiatives to further clarify response roles to reduce cognitive load during a crisis
Setting expectations for leadership about communication, tone, and pacing during crisis situations
Creating crisis awareness across the leadership landscape by training executives, managers, and supervisors to recognize stress responses in themselves and others.
Normalizing early intervention before issues escalate and ensuring a process exists for this that employees are aware of and can easily access.
Integrating strategies that support human functioning in continuity and response planning guides and exercises
This is not about therapy or diagnosis. It is about PREPAREDNESS.
There are some resources and trainings out there that can help organizations start to take some of these steps. Mental Health First Aid is one that has made a global impact on communities and organizations alike.
Preparing Your People is an Ethical Responsibility
Focusing on mental health preparedness during crisis planning is fundamentally about duty of care.
Organizations are expected to anticipate foreseeable risks and take reasonable steps to mitigate harm. That responsibility does not stop at physical safety or operational continuity.
When leaders are placed in high‑pressure situations without preparation for the human impact of crisis, the risk is not hypothetical—it is foreseeable. The same goes for all employees, as anyone can end up being the ‘first responder’ in someone else’s crisis experience.
Mental health readiness, therefore, is not a “soft” add‑on. It is a reflection of responsible leadership and governance.
Reflection
Awareness Is Not Readiness
Mental Health Awareness Month brings visibility to an issue that deserves increased attention, especially in the workplace. But awareness alone will not prepare organizations and their people for a crisis.
Prepared organizations move beyond awareness to implement strategies to support mental health preparedness that include:
Processes or Systems to ensure proper mental health considerations and support exist
Training that gives practical guidance to employees about crisis response, beyond physical safety and operations
Policies that provide accountability and align leadership responsibilities and expectations with duty of care
Mental health preparedness cannot function solely in HR’s purview because it is a larger crisis management issue. When a crisis occurs, the question is NOT whether stress will show up.
The question IS whether your organization has planned & trained for how leaders and teams will respond when it does.
Follow @ResilientMatriarch or tune in to this site throughout May to learn more about how Resilient Matriarch integrates human readiness into both corporate crisis management planning and community resilience initiatives.
If you or someone you know needs to talk the 988 Lifeline can help.