TELUS index flags cost-of-living stress

TELUS Health said on September 2 that its Q2 2026 U.S. Mental Health Index found cost of living was the top financial worry for 58% of workers. The company said 46% of workers do not understand their retirement benefits and 30% feel unsafe disclosing mental-health issues to managers. TELUS describes the index as longitudinal primary research tracking the mental health and wellbeing of employees across multiple regions, including the United States. (prnewswire.com) The findings add a workplace snapshot to a broader healthcare backdrop in which clinicians, employers and benefit managers are dealing with patients and workers under financial strain. (prnewswire.com) TELUS said financially stressed workers are nearly three times more likely to report productivity loss, linking money pressure to day-to-day work performance. The company’s public materials say the index is designed to measure mental-health status and productivity risk over time. ### Why did cost of living top the list? The September 2 TELUS Health release said 58% of U.S. workers identified cost of living as their top money worry. That made it the leading financial concern in the company’s Q2 2026 survey results, ahead of other benefit and workplace issues highlighted in the release. (prnewswire.com) TELUS did not present the figure as a one-off anecdote. The company’s index page says the survey series tracks how events such as recessions and political shifts affect worker wellbeing, suggesting the cost-of-living result is part of a recurring measure rather than a standalone poll. ### What else did the survey say about financial stress? The same Q2 2026 release said 46% of workers do not understand their retirement benefits. That finding points to confusion not only about household budgets, but also about employer-provided financial support that workers may already have access to. (telushealth.com) TELUS has previously tied financial insecurity to productivity and mental-health strain in other public materials. A TELUS Health resource page published in 2025 said its Mental Health Barometer drew on 14 U.S. index reports and found persistent stress and elevated mental-health risk in American workplaces. (prnewswire.com) ### Why does the disclosure number stand out? Thirty percent of workers said they feel unsafe disclosing mental-health issues to managers, according to the September 2 release. (telushealth.com) That figure points to a workplace barrier that sits apart from cost pressure: workers may be reluctant to tell supervisors when mental-health problems are affecting attendance, concentration or performance. TELUS’s broader index materials suggest disclosure concerns are not isolated. (prnewswire.com) Its index page says half of employees are not comfortable disclosing a mental-health issue to their manager, indicating the company has been tracking disclosure reluctance as part of the wider index framework. ### How does TELUS describe the index itself? TELUS Health says the Mental Health Index is a longitudinal research product that measures the full continuum of employee mental health and wellbeing. (resources.telushealth.com) The company says it publishes insights across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions. A previous U.S. TELUS release from June 2024 said one monthly survey wave collected responses from 3,000 employed adults in the United States. The September 2 Q2 2026 release available in search results did not, in the excerpt retrieved, specify the full U.S. sample size, so that detail was not independently confirmed here. (prnewswire.com) ### Where could these findings show up outside the workplace? Clinicians and rehabilitation providers often see the downstream effects of financial strain in missed visits, delayed follow-up and difficulty sticking with home programs, though TELUS’s September 2 release focused on workplace productivity rather than patient care directly. (telushealth.com) Any connection to adherence is therefore an inference from the reported stressors, not a claim TELUS explicitly made in the release. The next public reference point is TELUS Health’s ongoing U.S. Mental Health Index publication stream, which the company posts through its index site and press releases. The September 2 Q2 2026 release is the latest cited update in that series available here. (prnewswire.com 1) (prnewswire.com 2)