What I learnt at a Mental Health Forum

As a Risk Manger at a large Insurance Company (AXA), my work covers a broad range of areas. I recently attended a Mental Health Forum organised by Cover Magazine, as it was sponsored by 5 insurers, and was of professional interest (OK, and Continuous Professional Development credits were available).

Mental health is perhaps a lesser known area within the overall gamut of insurance coverage. However, to the applicants and policy holders in the Income Protection (IP) space, it can be vital part of any package. Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) and Travel insurance are 2 other important areas of coverage.

It was noted that Physical Health and Mental Health tend to invite different conversations. People generally to talk positively about their excercise regime and successes in dieting. But mental health in conversations usually often to be have negative association: schizophrenia, depression, anxiety etc. In truth, people participate in activities like jogging and badminton to improve physical and mental well-being, and is heartening to see increasing references made to the later than in the past. Mental health and Mental illness are not the same thing.

A number of people who live with differing mental health challenges spoke during the day, The most well known were Jonny Benjamin MBE and Neil Laybourn, who now devote their life to Mental Health Campaigning. The viral #FindMike campaign received a lot of media coverage in the national press and on television. Other speakers also told their stories, and a couple of links to blogs and businesses are included at the end of this post.

EAPs are funded by employers and offer employees confidential counselling and advice on a wide range of work and personal issues. They are often available to close family members as well. It makes sense for larger organisations to offer this benefit in order to improve employee well-being and help manage absences. 

I was sitting next to an HR manager working at a London branch of a Swiss Private Bank with just under 200 employees. She had discovered that nobody had used their EAP in the last year. She thought that this was likely due to the perceived stigma surrounding Mental Health, and that  Senior staff could be using private means if required there is an oft quoted statement that one in four adults will experience mental health issues at some point each year in the UK (and that the vast majority of these remain undiagnosed). I mentioned that my company HR sent out occasional reminders of the EAP benefits and details were on the office noticeboard. She responded by saying that she was looking to get a speaker for a lunch-and-learn cession to publicize the scheme. In fact, it became clear from this forum that there is a growing opportunity for people to talk about their mental health issues in the corporate arena on a professional basis.

When buying income Protection Cover, it was mentioned that the basic metal health question tends to be along the lines of quantify the number of instances of anxiety/depressoin/insomnia etc. over the last 5 years. This type of approach is not helpful as how does one quantify such things? Does being anxious stuck in a tunnel between 2 tube stations count? People are reluctant to go to GPs (who wants that on your medical record?) and the system does not work well. It was suggested that better questions are needed. More listening, understanding someone's story and hearing the good things as well as the negatives. The market is moving in this direction.

Some links are shown below. 2 are run by a couple of the speakers and help find insurance cover or learn more. The NHS APP library is a valuable source of approved Apps to manage and improve your health (their description). No personal endorsements!

https://www.nhs.uk/apps-library/https://www.insurancegeek.com/https://www.protectionguru.co.uk/