This week, at JCA we are holding our second annual Employee Assistance Programme Awareness Week to increase the familiarity of our employees with the types of support and assistance available through our EAP, now in its seventh year. 

Our theme for this year is ‘Community’ and we are emphasising the importance of community – both in our private lives (family, friends) and at work (our teammates, colleagues). 

Throughout the week we are sharing valuable information, tips and advice on different areas of support provided by our external EAP provider. The services include help with home and work life, physical and emotional health, wellbeing resources, self-help programmes, webinars and other.  

Employee Assistance Programme 

JCA values the health and wellbeing of all our employees and recognises that balancing everyday life together with the requirements of work and home can create pressure for everyone. We aim to establish a positive health and wellbeing culture that includes awareness, understanding, effective processes and positive behaviour by employees at all levels. 

As part of our commitment to health and wellbeing of our staff, we implemented an Employee Assistance Programme in 2016, delivered by an independent external organisation, which provides confidential support and guidance relating to personal issues via telephone and online advice, support and counselling services. 

Wellbeing at the core 

At JCA, we fully recognise that mental and physical health and wellbeing are equally important and that work can have a potential impact on both. 

We have an employee wellbeing policy that sets out and manages our obligations to maintain the mental health and wellbeing of our staff. The policy covers JCA’s commitment to employee health, the responsibilities of managers and others for maintaining psychological health, health promotion initiatives, communicating and training on health issues, the range of support available for the maintenance of mental health, and organisational commitment to handling individual issues. 

Trained to help

We take a “we’re in this together” approach – everyone has their part to play in ensuring that support can be accessed as needed, with dedicated support roles available. We have mental aid first aiders who are trained in mental health awareness and can support mental ill health and offer sign posted support.

Talking about mental health at work can be daunting: people may worry about how they will be treated and how their colleagues will react. We therefore invited JCA employees across the business to volunteer to become Health and Wellbeing Champions. Our Champions help implement and support JCA’s wellbeing and mental health programme through raising awareness of wellbeing, promoting healthy lifestyles and positive mental health. Every Champion attended an internationally recognised training course ‘Mental Health Champions’, accredited by Mental Health First Aid (MHFA).

Health and Wellbeing Champions can support workplace culture and make a difference to the lives of work colleagues, working with the organisation to make mental health a normal topic of conversation, dispelling myths and providing another avenue for people to seek support.

A number of our senior managers and line managers have also attended ‘Line Manager Mental Health Awareness Training’ run by Mind, with further sessions to be arranged later this year.  This training aims to provide line managers with a better understanding of mental health difficulties and the confidence to  manage mental health in the workplace, which promotes wellbeing and understanding across the teams and reduces perceived stigma when discussing mental health issues.

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