Providing a Safety Net For Colleagues

As complex as large global businesses are such as Capita, they are nothing compared to the complexities of an individual. Making sure that provision is made within organisations to help colleagues manage their mental health is not only helpful, but essential.

?Capita’s Senior Medical Officer Dr Charles Young shares how a person-centered approach is vital:

Helping Colleagues Manage Their Mental Health

As a leader I know how difficult it can be to resolve complex human resources problems. As a practising emergency doctor, I know how difficult it can be to resolve complex medical problems, including those involving mental health. I also know that when human resources and medical problems affect the same person at the same time, the impact on that person, and the business they work in, can be profound.

At Capita, one of the teams I lead is called Team Health, and together we deliver all the health-related functions for the company. These functions include health/safety/environment, safeguarding, wellbeing, occupational health, and clinical governance. By combining these activities, we provide a holistic approach to caring for the global Capita team as well as other people we work with and our service users.

SafetyNet

In February 2021, we also created a new team called SafetyNet. SafetyNet combines what Team Health does with expertise from our human resources colleagues to help care for individuals at Capita where human resources problems and medical problems are happening at the same time. The SafetyNet team’s multidisciplinary approach allows us to look at problems from a range of different perspectives, and to use our combined experience and knowledge to ensure all the bases are covered in situations which can be extremely stressful and challenging for the person affected as well as their colleagues and managers.

The types of situations we see and help with regularly include long term absence combined with mental health issues, colleagues who are struggling at work because of difficulties in their home lives, and colleagues who tell their manager or a colleague that they are considering taking their own life.

Capita's approach

Our approach is always to put the needs of the individual affected first, while also considering how to support their colleagues and managers.

We work closely with our occupational health team to look for ways we can support the person’s main care providers; we provide signposting to relevant internal and external support, such as our employee assistance program (EAP); and, if the situation is an emergency or involves safeguarding issues, we often work with the relevant local authority and / or emergency services. In these more urgent situations, our message to managers and colleagues is, if in doubt please always ask for help.

Over the last year and a half, using this innovative, person-centered holistic approach to care, we have helped over 200 colleagues, and their managers, deal with some extremely difficult situations. We continue to reflect on this initiative, respond to feedback and identify ways in which we can improve the SafetyNet service to best help our people in the future.

About the Author:

Dr Charles Young is Senior Medical Officer at Capita PLC. Charles trained in medicine in London and continues to practice as an emergency physician for one day each week at St Thomas’ hospital, London. As Senior Medical Officer for Capita Plc he leads a team of 1500 clinicians who work across a broad range of contracts delivering vital health services at national levels in the UK and internationally. He leads the clinical governance framework for the company and the clinical aspects of corporate health strategy.