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Workplace mental health has never been more important and employees are prioritising effective provision.
Download the Workplace Health and Protection Roundtable Supplement, in association with HelloSelf
1) How can employers best understand the wellbeing needs of their workforce?
Since Covid-19, there have been noticeable differences in the help we’re providing.
There has been more reported stress, fear, anxiety and adjustment issues with the uncertainty and time span of these ongoing circumstances.
People report more loss and loneliness; not just loss of social connection or employment, but also loss of purpose, routine, identity and roles, all of which can impact mood and wellbeing.
But, we have also seen an increase in our awareness of wellbeing and the need to maintain and look after mental health. “How are you?” is asked, answered and listened to in a different way.
What about the future?
We know being under stress for a prolonged time often leads to anxiety and mood disorders that require intervention. We know a lot of people will have losses and difficult circumstances to navigate.
So what to do?
- Knowledge is power: ensure people have access to the right information, especially understanding that a psychological reaction to circumstances is normal.
- Connection: maintain social systems with friends, colleagues and teams. Get to know your people and their circumstances.
- Consider those with multiple and conflicting roles: caring responsibilities, those living alone, pregnant employees, bereaved employees – their needs will differ; ask what they are.
- Communicate expectations: clearly and simply clarify priorities, give clear boundaries for the working day.
- Consult: ask people what would be of help and what they need or would like.
- Bolster mental health support: light touch accessible information for all and quality professional help when needed.
- Trial something to see how it fits: try it yourself; you need to trust your mental health provision so you have confidence when encouraging others to use it.
2) Can AI support and improve workplace health?
The need for innovation within mental health has never been greater in terms of prevention, early symptom detection and intervention, tracking, and supporting people to stay well in the longer term.
At HelloSelf our philosophy is not to try and replace therapists with AI but to build better tools to enhance therapists’ outcomes; from improving notes to supporting clients to do their activities between sessions.
AI needs to be used thoughtfully and responsibly at the right time for the right person. We must measure its impact on outcomes and those outcomes that matter to people.
We are clinically led to ensure the therapist stays central as the expert. Ultimately, clinicians understand their clients better than anything else.
3) What are the best ways to measure the impact of healthcare support on a workforce?
Delivering safe, high-quality care that is equitable and accessible is key.
Achieving improved clinical outcomes continues to be the gold-standard in psychological services.
People want to make measurable progress and therapists want to understand what’s effective to help them build and deliver personalised treatment plans.
For some people, distress alleviation is an accurate measure of progress but for others, how they cope and manage active symptoms is a goal.
We also know in some people, therapy involves an initial increase in distress to treat difficulties.
Because of these variations, it is necessary to measure a variety of outcomes that matter to each person, irrespective of presentation, and technology can play a crucial role.
4) What would you like our readers to know about HelloSelf?
We have been combining human expertise with technology since day one.
People want to make meaningful progress and therapists want to be effective and deliver formulation-driven, personalised treatment plans.
We use technology and data science to deepen client and therapist engagement.
The results are good.
For those above the clinical threshold on outcome measures, 76% improved enough to move to a lower scoring category at the end of treatment.
Pilot data shows higher engagement with the HelloSelf app correlates with greater improvement over fewer sessions.
HelloSelf consistently gains high net promoter scores over 70.
Download the Workplace Health and Protection Roundtable Supplement, in association with HelloSelf