Signapps enables a healthcare team to reduce the negative human and economic impact of mental health

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - Nov. 2, 2020 - PRLog -- The high cost of depression among employees in the workplace – as much as R4.2-billion annually - is being addressed by South African health tech Signapps.

As part of its contribution to Mental Health Awareness Month, the Cape Town-based business recently hosted a webinar on Mental Health and Functional Rehabilitation in the Workplace.

The webinar explained the difference between absenteeism  – where a person is not at work due to mental illness – and presenteeism, where the worker is physically at work but their performance is negatively impacted by their condition.  These workers do not deliver what is required while enjoying all the benefits of being employed.

Cost of presenteeism

Panellist Professor Stoffel Grobler explained, "Consider absenteeism:  A study by Johnson in 2002 has shown that 'Once a person commences on sick leave, they start down a slippery slope leading to long term worklessness.  The longer someone is off work, the less likely they are to return to work.   If the person is off work for 20 days, the chance of ever getting back to work is 70%, for 45 days this reduces to 50% and after 70 days of sick leave, the chance of ever getting back to work is 35%.'

Grobler continued, "Presenteeism results in another set of problems.  Because the person is at work but operating below capacity, their productivity, and hence the effectiveness of the organization, is compromised.   It has been estimated that, in South Africa, 49% of clinically depressed people will keep working despite their illness.  Alarmingly, it has been estimated that 4.2% of South Africa's GDP is lost due to presenteeism related to depression."

Team effort is the answer

Successful treatment is a co-ordinated team working together to see the patient successfully rehabilitated.   Dr. Laxton explained, "Typically, this is a big team and, in such a big team, data collection and care co-ordination is difficult.  To prevent relapse,  the team needs to communicate – often.  We must stop working in silos.  This is exactly where Signapps comes in."

Signapps CEO, Andrew Davies, says, "Signapps™ is a suite of patient-centric care-coordination tools.  The CoVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the use of digital healthcare services and data to deliver better outcomes more efficiently.

Our platform is a secure, simple, safe and cost-effective.  It enables a large team to communicate effectively in real time without having to be present with one another or the patient.  In addition, all the paperwork, results and forms are in the cloud and can be accessed immediately."

"Signapps is not the end solution.  Our platform is only one piece of the puzzle with the potential to drive efficiencies in the care coordination process," stressed Davies.

https://www.getsignapps.com