INSURANCI ANE RISK MANAGIMINT:

Staff wellness

For those of you watching the Six Nations coverage, you may have also seen the feature on the ‘Lift the Weight’ campaign. This campaign was established to remove the stigma surrounding mental health issues and offer necessary tools and support to players to help them lead a healthy and fulfilling life, both on and off the field.

The Scottish silver medal-winning swimmer, Michael Jamieson, recently retired from his sport, saying he had suffered from depression. He said he would go for weeks without leaving his home and was reliant on antidepressants and sleeping tablets.

The Mental Health at Work Report 2016 showed that 77% of employees have experienced symptoms of poor mental health at some point in their lives. And 54% of managers feel that online information and guidance would be useful in supporting the wellbeing of their employees.

In 2010, 2.5 million working days were lost due to accidents and workrelated ill health in Scotland, costing Scottish organisations like yours a total of £187 million, according the NHS Healthy Working Lives service.

A challenge for employers is not knowing whether their employees are suffering from such an illness, or indeed if they are facing other issues such as financial worries, marital problems, alcohol or drug misuse.

‘Fit for Work Scotland’ is a superb free service delivered by NHS Scotland. It can help support employees back to work after four or more weeks of sickness absence.

Employers can use the online referral

Employee Benefits Development Director at PIB Ltd