A recent review by the Centre for Mental Health estimates that absence, presenteeism and staff turnover attributable to mental health costs UK employers £34.9 billion a year – that’s equivalent to £1,300 per UK employee.

The most common mental health issues - stress, anxiety and depression - account for more than 15 million lost working days per annum and significantly impact on employee effectiveness and productivity. At any one time, 1 in 5 working people will have a mental health difficulty. However there is still a stigma associated with it, with many employees stating they wouldn’t tell their manager if they were struggling with their mental health.

Indeed 35% of those questioned thought they’d be less likely to be promoted if they were suffering with depression. This fear of openness means issues can go unsupported and escalate.

But the issues can be more complex and wide-reaching; for instance employees who experience mental health issues may feel less motivated to be physically active, which can further exacerbate any health issues they are experiencing.

Equally, people who struggle with their weight or smoke, may also experience other physical or mental health difficulties resulting in higher levels of absence.

Alcohol consumption and recreational drug use is part of many people’s everyday lives. However, for some people it can get out of control when used to help cope with life’s challenges. Excessive alcohol and drug use can also affect individuals’ performance at work and the fact that drug use is illegal means that employees are reluctant to raise it as an issue with their manager. Even if a problem is raised, traditional employee support mechanisms are not always able to support with these issues.

Taking the right steps

Dissemination of psychological knowledge and expertise through the implementation of innovative, evidence-based interventions can improve the health and wellbeing of employees, reducing absence and presenteeism and increasing performance by helping to create a productive, happy and loyal workforce.

However, even those employers that offer support via EAPs will still have unmet needs amongst their workforce. Many employees simply do not feel able to discuss their needs; they may think their difficulties are too sensitive or private – or, they may fear being stigmatised and losing their job as a result. Consequently, issues often go unaddressed until they start impacting on an individual’s functioning, both at home and at work, more severely.

"At Rightsteps, we firmly believe in psycho-education, helping people to better understand mental health conditions as part of their wider health and wellbeing, and supporting employees to address issues with evidence based interventions that are tailored to meet their personal needs. For example, for some people being able to access information, either for themselves or in relation to someone they know, may be enough. Others might be concerned about their own health and wellbeing and by accessing support they can prevent their difficulties from worsening. For those
already experiencing difficulties, getting the right support is crucial to helping them make positive changes in their lives." Cliff Lee, Head of Rightsteps 

Online interventions is one of the fastest growing fields in mental and physical health, providing an effective way of widening access to evidence-based support. They involve structured sessions that emulate face-to-face psychotherapy, helping people to understand and manage their difficulties more effectively. They also have the capacity to not only overcome traditional access barriers, but also to improve the cost-efficiency of support and enable treatments to be tailored to individual needs.

Help your people happy and healthy

By providing access 24/7 to confidential online psychological services such as Rightsteps Wellbeing employers are able to provide support which is accessible discretely and in a timely manner, when the employee feels safe, ready and motivated: factors which are proven to be effective in supporting a happier and healthier workforce and addressing issues which can result in absences or presenteeism.

Rightsteps Wellbeing is delivered by Turning Point, one of the UK's leading health and social care organisations. Our online portal includes information, advice self-guided support that brings expert guidance direct to your employees across a range of topics including:

• Low Mood

• Stress at Work

• Anxiety

• Alcohol

• Drugs including – Amphetamines, Benzodiazepines, Cannabis, Cocaine, Ecstasy, GHB, LSD, Steroids

• Smoking

• Healthy Eating

• Physical Activity

"Our services are based on the latest research findings and are developed by our team of highly experienced psychologists and subject matter experts to ensure high quality of care is available to employees accessing support. By providing support in a self-guided format, employees have the freedom to learn new skills and practise them at times that suit them best.

All our interventions draw from psychological therapies recommended by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) to reduce the impact of mental and/or physical health difficulties on people’s daily and occupational functioning as well as quality of life.

Rightsteps has developed its portal with the primary aim of promoting selfmanagement of employee’s wellbeing, helping your people learn how to help themselves, supporting a happier, healthier and more resilient workforce." Dr Evgenia Stefanopoulou, Clinical Psychologist PhD, ClinPsyD at Turning Point

@Rightsteps_UK | 0300 123 1530 | www.rightsteps.co.uk