EAP ACCESS TO MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES FASTER THAN NHS

Dated: 02/07/2012

Recent warnings that the NHS is failing to provide even the most basic treatment for mental illness to millions of people in the UK, underlines the importance of EAPs in supporting employee health and wellbeing, says Eugene Farrell, immediate past chair of the UK Employee Assistance Professionals Association.

In light of the report convened by Lord Layard of the LSE’s Centre for Economic Performance, mental health now accounts for almost half of ill health among people of working age and is generally more debilitating than most chronic physical conditions. In particular, the report concludes that only a quarter of children and adults of working age receive treatment, due in part to poor provision.

Eugene Farrell says: “Lord Layard’s findings emphasise the importance of EAPs when it comes to supporting the UK’s working population. They are increasingly popular and strategic programmes that enable employees to seek help for issues, including stress or anxiety, for example, that may affect their performance, productivity and attendance at work. Without the intervention and assistance of EAPs, which we estimate support over 10 million workers in the UK, the negative impact of mental ill health on the nation’s economy would be significant.”

Layard’s report agrees that the cost of psychological therapy is low and recovery rates are high. A study about to be published by the UK EAPA confirms that EAPs are a highly effective intervention for employees experiencing common mental health problems when compared with NHS primary care services. In fact, findings from the study, Benchmarking key service quality indicators in UK Employment Assistance Programme Counselling, show that waiting times for access to EAP services are three times faster than the NHS and that those contacting their EAP for support demonstrated a similar level of distress as those reaching out to NHS services.

“The UK EAPA wholly agrees that more needs to be done to deliver treatment to individuals with mental health issues. An EAP is one of a range of services that can be leveraged to support those with mental health problems and we look forward to working with other care providers to ensure this can be done,” says Eugene Farrell.

Find out more about the LSE report, How mental illness loses out in the NHS, here.