Supporting women’s health through Sun Life’s virtual care offering*

Read time: ~2 minutes

Women¹ make up about 48% of the Canadian workforce². Despite this fact, women’s health-care needs are not always effectively represented in group benefits plans. The following statistics highlight just a few examples of health-related situations where support is needed:

• In Canada, 23% of women who give birth will experience post-partum depression³, potentially affecting their ability to return to work.
• 10% of women will stop working due to unmanaged symptoms of menopause, often at the peak of their career⁴.
• 40% of long-term disability claims for women relate to mental disorders, compared with less than 30% for men⁵.

Sun Life’s virtual care suite of services*, provided by Dialogue⁶, provides extra support and resources for women regardless of where they are in their health journey. The resources include:

• Virtual clinical appointments, counselling, referral and support services to help women experiencing challenges with:
  • parenthood, and the return to work,
  • sexual and reproductive health,
  • menopause and hormonal health, 
  • caregiving responsibilities that are creating stress or impacting their job performance,
  • personal and work-related problems, and
  • mental health conditions, like depression, anxiety or grief.
• In addition, the app includes new women’s health-specific educational resources developed by a multidisciplinary team of health experts. New content will be added on an ongoing basis.

Resources for plan sponsors and their employees

These services are a cost-effective way for your Clients to support their employees. For information about the specific resources included in each of the three virtual care services, please share each of the below brochures and flyers with your Clients.

For plan sponsors:

• Primary Care brochure
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) brochure
• Stress Management and Well-Being brochure

For plan members:

• Primary Care brochure and flyer
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) brochure and flyer
• Stress Management and Well-Being brochure and flyer

For more information, please visit our website.

We’re sharing this news with Clients with under 50 employees and over 50 employees on October 24, 2024.

Questions? We’re here to help.

Please contact your Sun Life Group Benefits representative.

 

* Also referred to as Lumino Health Virtual Care, provided by Dialogue.

¹While we refer to women, we are inclusive of all gender identities that may be uniquely or disproportionately affected by these health issues or topics.

²Statistics Canada, Labour Force characteristics, 2022

³Sun Life, The gender health gap: its impact on working women in Canada, 2024.

⁴The Menopause Foundation of Canada: https://menopausefoundationcanada.ca

⁵Sun Life, The gender health gap: its impact on working women in Canada, 2024.

⁶Dialogue is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada operating as a stand-alone entity.