With demand for mental health support rising, proper assessment always needs to be your starting point when working to help an employee who is struggling, argues Christine Husbands.
According to an analysis of year-on-year data, RedArc’s team of professional nurses gave mental health care and support to an additional 23% of people in 2023 compared with the previous year.
So, what is this telling us and, more widely, saying about demand for this sort of workplace-based healthcare support?
Mental health
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We believe many issues are driving this demand, including a lack of access to primary care and ever-stretched NHS mental health services. In fact, since November 2023, NHS England has reported on longest waits for referrals to adult community mental health services.
While effective therapy is extremely powerful and has the potential to transform lives, it is imperative that people are given access to the right type of support for their particular symptoms or condition, the wrong type of therapy can put recovery back. In summary, good-quality assessment leads to better outcomes.
Understanding the working environment
A specialist mental health practitioner needs to carry out a full assessment to ensure the individual is directed to the correct type of support in order to ensure the best outcomes. This includes needing to understand the sort of working environment the individual is working in, which is one reason why bespoke workplace-based support can be so powerful.
Understandably, when an individual is feeling low, depressed or has anxiety, it’s not unusual for them to seize whatever support is offered to them, or whatever is currently popular, regardless of whether that support is suitable.
However, it is vital to recognise the vulnerability of those with mental health conditions and offer a full assessment in order to direct them to the most appropriate support.
What is right may not be the same as what is popular
For instance, cognitive behavioural therapy and counselling are both of course well-known therapies, and both have their merits when recommended following an assessment. But there are also a vast number of other lesser-known therapies that may be more appropriate.
It is important to be aware that what is right is not always the same as what is popular – and what is popular is not always right.
When the range of mental health support on offer is limited, and individuals are required to self-select their own therapy, there is greater potential for the wrong choice to be made, or even for people to be turned away, resulting in poorer health outcomes.
Similarly, there are drawbacks when therapies are time-limited, which can be the case when mental health support is not comprehensive.
It can take great courage for someone to ask for mental health support and it is important that support is available for as long as it is required to ensure that the individual has time to fully deal with the issues involved.
Assess the full spectrum of options
Ultimately, starting the wrong course of treatment can delay the progress of the individual in making a good recovery.
Workplace-based mental health support and mental health therapies can be, and are, effective. But they should only be recommended by those who fully understand the appropriateness and advantages of different types and have a full spectrum of options at their disposal.
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