At Spring Health, we know mental health leave can be one of the most emotionally, financially, and operationally challenging moments for employees and HR teams. Leave request volumes are rising, and so are the costs associated to support them. With inefficient systems straining to keep up with demand, the stakes for people and organizations are higher than ever.
While mental health leave can be prevented with the right care at the right time, there will always be cases when time away to heal is needed.
That’s why we’re launching Mental Health Leave & Accommodations (MHLA), a new tech-powered solution built within the Spring Health platform. It’s designed to help reduce the costs of mental health leaves, streamline the process for all stakeholders, and chart a meaningful path to recovery.
See how MHLA can reduce costs and improve outcomes.
Request a personalized demo to explore how Spring Health’s integrated platform simplifies leave and supports real recovery.
Why now?
Mental health-related leaves are on the rise, and many employers are unprepared. By some estimates, almost half of all employee leaves are related to mental health. Moreover, since 2017, leaves of absence tied to mental health have increased by over 300%.
According to the 2025 Forrester Consulting study commissioned by Spring Health, Mental Health at Work, 74% of employees say they feel only moderately supported by their mental health benefits at best—despite growing investment from employers. Meanwhile, only 55% say they’re very or extremely unlikely to use the offerings available to them, signaling a deep misalignment between support and actual experience.
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Explore the full Forrester study: Mental Health at Work.
Get data-backed insights into how HR leaders are reshaping mental health strategies—and where most still fall short. Download the full report!
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Behind those numbers are real workforce challenges–and mounting pressure on HR.
It’s not just about volume. Employees in crisis often face a fragmented, manual, and confusing leave process, while HR teams struggle with administrative load and lack of real-time visibility.
This gap between rising needs and outdated systems isn’t just inefficient. It’s costly, driving up administrative overhead, lengthening leave duration, and hurting productivity.
Spring Health’s Mental Health Leave & Accommodations (MHLA) solution is designed to close that gap, reducing costly leaves through prevention, faster access to care, and more successful returns to work.
What’s included in MHLA?
Mental health leave doesn’t happen in isolation and neither should the tools to manage it. What sets Spring Health’s solution apart is that it’s built directly into our comprehensive mental health platform, not bolted on as a one-off point solution.
That means employees, HR leaders, and providers benefit from a connected experience that spans the entire leave lifecycle: from early signs of distress to clinical evaluation, to return-to-work support—all with shared context, continuity, and care.
See MHLA in action—how it works, who it helps, and why it matters.
Here’s what’s included:
Proactive prevention and early intervention
We use real-time data and predictive insights within our core platform to help HR teams reduce leave incidences and associated costs by:
- Spotting trends early
- Identifying high-risk departments
- Connecting employees to care before a leave occurs
“Preventing the need for leave is the ultimate goal. But when it’s necessary, we ensure care is fast, supported, and tailored.”
— Dr. Mill Brown, Chief Medical Officer, Spring Health
A streamlined, tech-enabled leave experience
Employees move through the leave process using the same platform they already trust for care. They can:
- Self-schedule with trained evaluators
- Track status updates in real time
- Receive clear communications informing them about what to expect
On the back end, providers benefit from a templated, clinically guided evaluation experience that preserves the accuracy of evaluations and hand-offs to absence management vendors. In doing so, organizations cut down on the administrative burden that delays recovery and drives up costs.
Clinically grounded evaluations and personalized care connections
Our mental health providers are specially trained in leave documentation and operate with the same clinical quality standards that underpin our broader care model. Evaluations, care plans, and recommendations all live in one connected EHR system, ensuring consistency and clarity. With personalized care plans and access to a wide range of specialty mental health providers, we connect employees who require leave of absence with the right level of care, further driving meaningful treatment that aids in real recovery.
A more thoughtful return to work
Because Spring Health supports members beyond leave, we help them transition back into the workplace with ongoing care, personalized coaching, and manager-facing reintegration tools to ensure a successful return to full productivity and reduce the risk of repeat leaves.
The MHLA solution gives employers a seamless, data-informed, clinically guided system to manage the entire leave lifecycle, from proactive prevention to a successful return to work.
“We’ve rethought the experience from the ground up, creating a platform that brings together clinical excellence, smart automation, and compassionate design. With this launch, we’re setting a new standard for how organizations support their people during some of the most critical moments in their lives.”
— Gijo Mathew, Chief Product Officer, Spring Health
A better way to manage mental health leave–end to end
Mental health leave is a reality, but it doesn’t have to be a burden. MHLA helps organizations respond with empathy and insight, all within a smarter system designed to simplify processes and reduce the total cost of care.
👉 See what a simplified, streamlined MHLA solution could mean for your organization. Request a demo today!
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