What factors are behind the significant increase in demand for mental health support services across the UK?
There has been a renewed focus on wellbeing and good mental health in the last 10 years, with people starting to seek support for a whole range of conditions. Society is more aware of the challenges put on children and adolescents, and becoming more cognisant of neurodiversity, and understanding its impact on individuals. And over the last few years these issues have moved up the corporate agenda and are now one of the issues covered at boardroom level. This raising of awareness is positive — and it has been a factor in driving demand for a whole range of mental health support services. While there has been some investment in the NHS on this issue, in many cases demand is outstripping supply and there can be delays when it comes to receiving appropriate treatment. As a result more businesses are realising they need to work harder to support staff on these issues.
How can workplaces deliver better mental health support to increase the wellbeing of their employees?
The first priority for businesses is to look at their own workplace culture and the particular challenges employees face. Not all businesses are exactly the same when it comes to the pressures, strains and demands facing employees and it is important to understand how these might change throughout an organisation. The employee benefits world
is full of excellent solutions, with a wealth of prevention and behavioural change applications and platforms that are available, via occupational health, PMI products, group risk plans and EAPs. But it is important that businesses and companies look at their specific needs first to understand which is the most appropriate solution that can deliver the benefits employees need.
How can industry and sector partnerships support UK businesses to deliver better mental health services?
Onebright works with corporations and other organisations to help focus their strategy around mental health. This can drive cultural change across the organisation, which can impact recruitment, training and support for employees. This is important, not only in providing solutions, but also in identifying some of the causes that might be contributing to anxiety, stress and other mental health problems in the workplace. Onebright is in an optimal position to do this: we are not a PMI, occupational health or EAP provider, but work with major providers in these areas, delivering the range of therapies they offer on their products. This gives us important insight into where this support is being utilised, and to what effect. This can help HR teams understand what these various benefits provide: some might offer short-term counselling, others full CBT and trauma therapy. This can enable conversations about spotting early signs of mental health issues and ensuring similar pathways are available to all employees who might need this support. This can also be an important part of a company’s approach to diversity and inclusion; and ensuring within organisations there isn’t split access to services and support.
Can better data lead to a more sophisticated approach to mental health and wellbeing?
This is absolutely the case. Working with leading PMI and occupational health providers enables us to access significant data on who is using the various services available and to what effect. The insights we can provide on this can help companies build more effective employee benefits strategies. For example it is possible to look at the type of treatment people are accessing by age, gender, location or job function. This can give insights into the kind of support needed across different areas of a business. We can also complete whole of workforce audits, which can look at risk areas, helping to predict where future problems might lie. It’s possible to get a more complete understanding by comparing these two data sets, giving companies better insight into the adjustments they need to make, and where targeted solutions – be it resilience training or post-Covid support— are likely to deliver the biggest impact.
What is next for Onebright?
We want to continue supporting our partners by delivering best-in-breed mental health therapy pathways, corporate analytics, consultancy and training solutions. Our core services continue to be counselling and CBT therapy, both remote and face-to-face, but we have also been developing more specialist assessment pathways in recent years, for example around neurodiversity, and services aimed at supporting children and adolescents. We anticipate increased demand for both of these. We’ve also heavily invested in technology to help match individuals with the most appropriate clinician, not only in terms of qualifications, specialisms and delivery method but also personal preference.
