1 in 4 employees find the courage to book therapy, but never show up: Report
From Silence to Signal: India Inc.’s Mental Wellness Reckoning, a report by ekincare shows that mental wellness engagement in corporate organisations has risen by 44% since 2023.
A new report from digital health benefits platform ekincare reveals that 26.6% of corporate employees who book a counselling session never attend.
The report titled From Silence to Signal: India Inc.’s Mental Wellness Reckoning (2023–2026) is a data-led analysis of corporate mental health utilisation trends, drawn from its counselling sessions ledger across its corporate client base.
Based on data from 6,000 counselling sessions booked between 2023 and 2026, the findings indicate that mental wellness in corporate organisations has grown by 44% since 2023. This reveals a behavioural shift in how employees perceive mental health in the workplace.
Some of the other key findings of the report include:
- Gen Z employees (aged 20–25) recorded a 203% increase in counselling utilisation over the past two years, dramatically outpacing the 18% growth seen among the 31–35 age group—signalling a significant generational shift in openness to seeking mental health support.
- High-pressure sectors are seeing the sharpest rise in mental health support uptake, with counselling utilisation in BFSI soaring 408%—the highest among industries studied—followed by Healthcare and Pharma at 122%, underscoring mounting stress in demanding work environments.
- The “articulation gap” is reshaping how workplace distress is reflected in data. While men account for a higher share of clinically identified anxiety and depression cases than women (38% versus 32%), they are more likely to describe their struggles in broader, less explicit terms—potentially obscuring the true extent of their mental health concerns.
- The oldest segment of the workforce is exhibiting the greatest clinical burden, with 44% of counselling sessions among employees aged 35 and above linked to anxiety, depression, or mood-related issues.
Dr Noel Coutinho, Co-founder of ekincare, said, “The conversation around workplace mental health has fundamentally changed. A few years ago, the question was: how do we get employees to use these programmes? Today, usage is no longer a challenge. The challenge is readiness.”
He added, “Are our systems equipped to handle the scale, complexity, and clinical depth of the emerging demand? Because when one in four employees finds the courage to book a session and still doesn’t show up, the issue is not awareness; it’s psychological safety. Corporate healthcare is becoming one of the defining infrastructures through which Indian adults access mental healthcare."