Mental health crisis exacerbates travel risks

An emerging mental health crisis is exacerbating business travel risk, according to corporate travel risk experts International SOS. Business travel is now returning to pre-pandemic levels. But employees are being asked to travel in a world of permacrisis at a time of heightened anxiety and rising healthcare pressures, Peter Jenkins, general manager for Northern Europe at International SOS, told Commercial Risk Europe at the Airmic conference this week. “Having lived quieter, isolated and controlled lives during the pandemic – along with the stresses that period entailed – people are now emerging into a permacrisis, with war in Ukraine and South Sudan, cost of living crisis, and financial and emotional pressures on individuals. We are asking these people to carry on as they did pre-pandemic, which is exacerbating the mental health crisis,” explained Jenkins. “People have been in a world of Zoom and Teams calls and not interacting with others for a number of years and then pulled back into the workforce, asked to present in front of peers and jump on a plane, and asked to travel to a country where they do not understand the risks and healthcare. And that is just raising anxiety levels. If generalised anxiety is not addressed it can lead to panic attacks, which can lead to symptoms that are similar to a cardiovascular incident,” he said. Mental health issues in the workplace can lead to long-term sickness, absenteeism and presenteeism, or incidents during business travel. When traveling, employees are away from their normal support, and may be more inclined to resort to abnormal behaviours, such as alcohol or drug abuse, explained Jenkins. Companies also have a duty of care to their employees, including when returning to the office or travelling, he said. “Every organisation has a huge responsibility for their employees, whatever they are asking them to do – whether travelling to Singapore or the Democratic Republic of Congo, they must ensure their employee is properly prepared for that trip,” he said. “That duty of care requirement is critical for organisations to meet, particularly in the travel environment where there is the ISO 31030 standard, which many organisations are now looking to comply with. And as the mental health crisis is emerging, it is part of that duty of care requirement,” he added. Travel risk has changed since the pandemic, as healthcare systems around the word come under increasing pressure. “The world is different, access to healthcare is different. All healthcare services are under pressure, and accessing care is not just a case of walking into a doctors or a hospital anymore,” said Jenkins. The increased cost of living and inflation are pushing up the cost of care, which also impacts insurance premiums, according to Jenkins. International private medical insurance is seeing double-digit growth in premium rates. However, more organisations are looking at travel risk management more seriously, going beyond relying on their insurance, explained Jenkins. “Insurance was once enough but most companies now recognise that it isn’t and they need a more robust duty of care risk management solution,” he said.

Mental health crisis exacerbates travel risks

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