Rise in EAP mental health calls

Growing numbers of UK employees are using Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) to seek help for mental health related issues.

EAPs are employee benefit programmes offered by employers to help their employees deal with personal problems that might adversely impact their work performance, health and wellbeing.

New data from Personal Group and Health Assured shows a 31% increase in the number of mental health related calls made to EAPs between the first half of 2017 and the same period this year.

This increase outpaced that of all other advice calls, with mental health issues overtaking other areas of concern such as work stress, relationships and general health issues.

Mental health support calls represented 36% of all calls made in the first two quarters of 2018, up from 23% a year earlier.

According to mental health charity Mind, around one in four people in the UK experience a mental health problem each year, ranging from common problems like depression and anxiety to rarer problems such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Commenting on the research findings, Personal Group chief executive Mark Scanlon said: “More and more employers are waking up to the fact that more must be done to improve their employees’ wellbeing. Mental health in the workplace is no longer a taboo subject and only by providing resources and open conversation can we truly start to provide the support our employees need.

“To effectively improve wellbeing, a strategy must be put in place which considers physical, emotional as well as financial wellbeing. If an employee is suffering in one area of their life it will often manifest itself in other areas.

“A truly all-inclusive health and wellness programme that acknowledges and supports employees at each point of what we like to call the ‘triangle of wellbeing’ is the only way to promote meaningful employee wellbeing.”