According to mental health charity Mind, the UK is in the grip of a mental health emergency.
However, the term mental health is very wide ranging, covering anything from mild anxiety or low mood through to severe and enduring conditions, such as severe depression, trauma and psychiatric disorders.
Support services are available via insurance products, employee benefits and other sources, but the content of these varies enormously.
Therefore, I would urge those purchasing mental health support services to look carefully at the detail and ensure they are comfortable with any limitations.
Key elements
- Therapy sessions – It’s important to understand what structured therapies are offered and how many sessions are available. Counselling and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) are most commonly offered. This is typically four, six or eight sessions although sometimes only initial in the moment support is available. In our experience, for those with severe and enduring conditions, eight sessions without any other support is unlikely to be sufficient, and even those with mild conditions usually need more than four sessions.
- Exclusions – It’s crucial to know if any diagnosed mental illnesses are excluded. Some services specifically exclude certain conditions or severities such as severe depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and personality disorders. It’s also important to understand if the service will cater for children as well as adults.
- Ongoing Support – Consideration must be given to the provision of any ongoing support beyond structured therapy. Many services conclude with the final therapy session, whether the individual has recovered or not, subject of course to a safeguarding duty of care. Others provide ongoing support and care beyond structured therapy until the individual is ready to be discharged.
The fall-out
Sadly, we hear about many people who cannot get support from mental health support services. Their condition may be excluded or the triaging professional may judge that the number or type of therapy available would not be beneficial and possibly detrimental, and others reach the end of the available therapy before they have fully recovered.
For this population, who need help the most, the next step could potentially be a significant wait time on the NHS, which is likely to be extremely detrimental and potentially dangerous.
Caveat Emptor
The selection of a mental health support service for customers, employees or members in many situations is really a case of let the buyer beware.
It is easy to adopt a service without taking the time to appreciate any limitations and then find that unfortunately it has been ineffective.
An effective mental health support service should encompass the full spectrum, from mild through to severe and enduring mental health conditions, and offer long-term support when it’s needed.