Care first delivers online mental health support to over 41,000 people in 100 weeks

• The online sessions were introduced to help businesses support their employees during the pandemic
• Over 41,000 people have logged on to the webinars over the 100 weeks that the service has been offered
• Care first plans to continue the service even after all the pandemic restrictions have been lifted

Care first is celebrating delivering 100 weeks of daily mental health support webinars. Over 41,000 people have logged on to the webinars at some point, to access support on subjects ranging from suicide prevention to managing work-life balance.

Care first is owned by Priory, the UK’s leading independent provider of mental health services. It allows employers to provide employee assistance programmes for their staff. These programmes can include a number of high quality services, such as the online webinars, as well as telephone and face-to-face counselling.

The online webinars are usually half an hour long, and each one is dedicated to a different topic. Recent examples have been winter wellbeing and boosting your self-esteem. Registration and attendance is kept confidential, so employees attending the session can be assured their employers won't be notified that they have done so.

The online webinars were originally devised as a response to the pandemic. People were more likely to be working from home, and feeling the effects of isolation as a result of the lockdowns. Providing online mental healthcare sessions meant that Care first was able to reach people who might not otherwise have been able to get the help they needed.

The sessions have proved to be such a success that Care first is planning to continue offering the online support webinars after the pandemic restrictions are lifted. There has been an increased recognition of the prevalence of mental health issues in the workplace, and of the value employees place on positive mental health. This is unlikely to change just because the pandemic restrictions have ended, and many employers want to put strategies in place to address these issues. Employee assistance programmes like Care first, with their focus on helping people to stay well and productive, are a key part of this response.

Chelsey Weaver, Service Manager at Care first said; “I personally feel that the webinars we present are a great way to connect with the many people we support at Care first. I thoroughly enjoyed presenting the webinars as they give me the opportunity to show our customers all of the ways we can help, and to remind them that it's completely OK to ask for support.”

Priory CEO, Rebekah Cresswell, said: “I’ve been very impressed with the work Care first have done delivering online mental health support during the pandemic. It was such a difficult time for everyone, and I’m so pleased that so many people were able to access the help they needed as a result of this innovative programme. I’m delighted that the sessions will continue into the future, and I hope that many more people will use them to get the support they need and the opportunity to be proactive about healthy living.”

ENDS

Contact: [email protected]

About Priory and MEDIAN

Priory is the UK’s leading independent provider of mental health services. We treat more than 70 conditions, including depression, anxiety, addictions and eating disorders, as well as children’s mental health, across our nationwide network of sites. We also support autistic adults and adults with a learning disability, Prader-Willi Syndrome and brain injuries, as well as older people, within our specialist residential care and supported living facilities – helping as many people as possible to live their lives.

Priory is part of the MEDIAN Group, one of Europe’s leading providers of high quality mental health and rehabilitation services. The MEDIAN Group comprises 290 facilities with 5,000 beds caring for 28,000 people in the UK, 120 facilities with 20,000 beds caring for around 250,000 patients in Germany, and 15 facilities with 2,000 beds caring for 13,000 people in Spain, with more than 29,000 employees overall.