Bloomin’ Brands expands mental health support for restaurant workers

A server, cook or bartender at Bloomin’ Brands can now tap a benefit that reaches beyond a poster on the break-room wall: six free, confidential counseling sessions per person, per issue, per year, with access extended to household members. For restaurant workers juggling doubles, late nights and home stress that follows them off the clock, the change makes mental-health support part of the job infrastructure instead of a one-time message.

Bloomin’ Brands says the program is available through its employee assistance program, which its 2024 annual report described as cost-free for all team members and their family members. The report said the EAP includes virtual therapy sessions, free counseling, and tools and resources for mental health and well-being. The company’s 2025 hourly benefits guide adds a practical detail workers can use: six free counseling sessions through Magellan, plus virtual counseling through BetterHelp. That kind of structure matters in restaurants, where burnout often shows up on the line, in the dining room and in manager turnover long before it is discussed in an HR meeting.

The company, which operates more than 1,450 restaurants across 46 states, Guam and 12 countries, employs about 64,000 team members across Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill and Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar. Inside that footprint, Bloomin’ Balance has become the most visible sign of the company’s mental-health push. The employee resource group launched in 2021 and now has more than 800 members. Bloomin’ Brands has also used monthly newsletters and Courageous Conversations sessions to give workers a place to talk honestly about grief, stress and mental health struggles.

The effort is part support system, part retention strategy. Bloomin’ Brands has tied the work to broader inclusion and belonging principles that emphasize the sanctity of the individual and treating people with kindness, respect and understanding. It also hosted the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Talk Saves Lives program for the past two years and placed 988 awareness posters and wallet cards in corporate restaurants nationwide. For managers trying to keep a floor staffed, or for hourly workers deciding whether a company is worth staying with, those details matter more than polished messaging.

The broader industry context is stark. Only a few restaurant brands offered mental health benefits in the late 2010s, and the pandemic accelerated demand for real support. OSHA says workplace stress can hurt productivity, engagement and physical health, while CDC and NIOSH say changing workplace policies and practices is the best way to address burnout. Bloomin’ Brands is betting that restaurant culture improves when mental health is treated the way kitchens already treat labor, coverage and training: as something operations have to carry every day.