CIGNA Behavioral Health Supports Depression Awareness

Depression awareness and treatment remain as focus areas for employers and the media. As an innovator in behavioral health, we continue to be featured as an expert on the condition in the public eye. Recently, Keith Dixon joined business leaders at the New York Business Group on Health and Diane Brady of BusinessWeek to discuss our approach to depression disease management.

Perhaps Senior Correspondent of CBS News, Mike Wallace’s own battle with depression influenced several prominent business leaders, including CIGNA Behavioral Health’s President and CEO, Keith Dixon, to convene on the topic in New York City a few weeks ago.

“What happened was while I was still in depression and I hadn’t acknowledged it yet, I was not as good a reporter, not as good a interviewer as I had been because I was not able to focus…It’s no longer a shame, you’re not ashamed, it’s a disease.”
    – Mike Wallace, Senior Correspondent of CBS News

More than 70 percent of people diagnosed with depression are employed, with depression resulting in 400 million lost workdays a year. CIGNA Behavioral Health, a sponsor and panelist at the New York Business Group on Health’s event titled “Depression, Employee Well-Being and Business Performance” talked with key business leaders from companies such as Pitney Bowes, JP Morgan Chase and PriceWaterhouseCoopers on Tuesday, September 19th.

Preceding the event, Keith Dixon was interviewed by BusinessWeek’s Diane Brady on the importance of recognizing and treating employee depression. “Depression has an acute stigma attached to it,” Dixon said. “What’s very hopeful is that we’re coming out of that age and depression is being recognized for what it is – a medical illness that can be effectively treated.” To view the full interview with Keith Dixon logon to BusinessWeek Online, or view from the CIGNA Behavioral Health Newsroom.