Although migraine can be a serious medical condition there are recommended steps that you can take to help your employees manage their attacks.¹²

1. Promote awareness

• Include migraine in your worksite wellness lunch-and-learn sessions.¹² (see Migraine Mentors at Work)
• Encourage migraine sufferers to seek more effective care if their condition is not being treated adequately.¹²
• Educate managers about migraine's effects.¹²
• Eliminate or minimize known migraine triggers in the workplace.¹²

2. Assess migraine's economic impact

• Include migraine symptoms in health-risk appraisals.¹²
• Use aggregate claims data to estimate the prevalence of migraine among your workers.¹²
• Consider total costs of migraine, including absenteeism, presenteeism and overall employee productivity and effects on employee productivity.¹²

3. Support migraineurs suffering an attack on-site.

• Invite a headache expert to instruct employee health staff about managing acute attacks.¹²
• Provide a quiet room where an employee with migraine can lie down after taking medication, dim the lights and rest. Ice packs are recommended.¹²

3. Ensure appropriate care

• Consult with headache specialists on the most cost-effective interventions.¹²
• Evaluate your health plans' policies:¹²
  • Are there barriers to proper diagnosis or treatment?
  • Do primary care physicians have guidelines on appropriate therapies and referral to specialists?
  • Do plan policies help prevent or reduce the disability resulting from migraine?

Educational initiatives like Migraine Mentors at Work are an excellent way to help businesses regain productivity lost to migraine by educating employees about migraine, its triggers and treatments.

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