Available to all its individual and corporate customers, the tools provide a one-stop online mental wellbeing package, offering both assessments and psychotherapy-based support without the need for psychiatric cover.
The service combines the results from four online assessments covering stress, psychological wellbeing, resilience and social support to give a complete picture of each individual’s emotional health and mental wellbeing.
Free access support is then provided through Living Life, a new Vitality partner which offers an online life skills course using cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). It consists of a selection of modules, worksheets and ebooks which have been developed by Dr Chris Williams, Professor of Psychiatry and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at the University of Glasgow. They help users tackle and respond to issues and demands which everyone meets in their everyday lives, in complete anonymity.
Research by PruHealth shows that at least one in four British workers is displaying symptoms of the most common mental health problems such as depression, stress and anxiety. Stress levels have increased for almost half (45 per cent) of those interviewed in the last 12 months and they do not believe stress levels are likely to get any better in the future (49 per cent).
There is still a big stigma attached to mental illness with only 18 per cent prepared to admit or tell someone that they suffer from mental health problems.
Neville Koopowitz, CEO at PruHealth says: “Our Vitality wellness programme is designed to help people look after their mental, emotional and physical health, by encouraging them to earn Vitality points for doing healthy activities. In order to help people understand their mental wellbeing we have designed a range of online assessments. We then go one step further and complete the picture by providing a solution for those that need a helping hand with supporting tools. The Living Life course is convenient because it can be taken at any time to suit each individual and can be completed anonymously and in complete privacy which our own research has shown to be big motivators in accessing such help.”
