April is Stress Awareness Month, and Sam’s recent customer journey with The BUSY Group provides an insight not only into the burden that high levels of stress at work can impose on people but also on the kind of interventions that can lift that burden and help to change lives.
When he was referred to us, Sam was feeling overwhelmed with his responsibilities in a challenging job. With a heavy workload, he was working on his days off, drinking heavily and sleeping poorly. Working with Charlotte, his Coach, Sam was gradually able to reframe his mindset and create a healthier work-life balance that has made him calmer, more productive at work, kinder to himself and better able to support his family at home.
The economic cost of stress on the UK economy is estimated at £28billion a year. That’s why stress at work, the way we choose to respond to it and how we support people struggling with it, have become such significant features of the employment landscape. The social and personal cost to individuals, like Sam, and to their families is at the heart of the growing mental health challenge we face as a nation.
Each year 12 percent of British workers say they feel very stressed at work and over 40 percent are fairly stressed. According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, stress is now responsible for two thirds of all long-term absences from work. That’s happening in a UK economy in which workplace absences are now at a ten-year high, making it more vital than ever that the support employees get is rapid, evidence-based and impactful.
Sam’s support came from Able Futures, a workplace mental health service providing exactly that kind of support. It’s delivered across Wales and South West England by CASE UK, and Central England by Health 2 Employment (H2E) both part of The BUSY Group in the UK. The highly trained Coaches delivering Able Futures are equipped to help people over a limited number of one-to-one sessions to develop insights into their own mental health needs, set boundaries to support their wellbeing, plan SMART personalised goals for themselves and put practical coping strategies like sleep hygiene checklists, priority lists and productivity logs into action.
Through H2E, The BUSY Group also employ an extensive team of occupational psychologists and mental health therapists who deliver clinical interventions as part of a range of Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) employment programmes as well as providing occupational health and wellbeing services directly to employers across a range of sectors including Engineering, Manufacturing and Aerospace. This rounded approach enables us to tailor our support to each customer and explains why, for example, more than 80 percent of employees receiving support from our Access to Work Mental Health service have retained their employment and remain engaged with the service after six months. Just like Sam whose one-to-one sessions with his Coach have helped him to regain a more constructive work-life balance, improve his performance in the job and, critically, rebuild his motivation for work.
We understand that health and wellbeing at work is incredibly important to both the organisation and to the employee. The BUSY Group also offer tailored support designed around organisational need. For example, Case UK deliver CPD accredited mental health training and H2E offer health focused training including Mental Health First Aid delivered by Clinicians, and ongoing peer support.
At a time when Health Foundation research shows that mental ill health is now the most common cause of work-limiting conditions for people under 45, it’s people like Sam whose experience provides hard evidence that getting it right with workplace stress is what, in the end, works best for all of us.
Find out more about Able Futures and how you can refer yourself or someone who requires mental health support to stay in work.
You can find out more about The BUSY Group by contacting partnerships@thebusygroup.org.uk