Employees and owners of small businesses in Havant Borough or East Hants District can now obtain free workplace wellbeing support from the experts Havant and East Hants Mind.

Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP) are employee benefit programmes offered by many larger employers. The EAP service is intended to help employees deal with personal problems including their wellbeing that might adversely impact their work performance or health

• Any employee of a business based in Havant or East Hants. (The business must have 50 staff less to qualify)
• Any employer with a small business based in Havant or East Hants
• You must have a self-defined wellbeing issue that you need some help with. Common themes we see staff wanting help with, because it is impacting their wellbeing and work, include
  • Work or home- based stress
  • Debt or money worries
  • Low self esteem
  • Dealing with symptoms of anxiety or depression
  • Dealing with caring responsibilities while working
  • Physical health issues impacting on wellbeing
  • Housing issues
  • Domestic violence
  • Relationship issues
  • Addictive behaviours, gambling or substances
  • Anger
  • Assertiveness

Havant and East Hants Mind is an independent charity. We do not share details about clients with anyone else unless they give their consent to do so. Sometimes we might need to refer you to another source of support like Citizens Advice or a local support group, and we would ask your permission to do this.

Although the service is commissioned by Havant Borough Council and East Hants District Council – we will only let them know the total number of people who accessed the services and some of the common themes that were presented. We will not share any details or personal information with them.

With regards to your employer – we will never specifically tell an employer which employees have accessed the service. You might like to consider if you want to tell your employer you want to access the service. There are many reasons to tell an employer that you might have an issue you want to address through the service.

1. Many wellbeing issues are under reported – it may appear that no one has any wellbeing issues unless staff feel confident to talk about it. You should not need to tell your employer the details of the issues you want to address.
2. You employer may need give you time off to access the service or to rearrange your schedule
3. You might not be able to access the service from home so you may need a location at work to use the phone or laptop to speak to our wellbeing practitioners

• To self refer you can email our wellbeing practitioner on [email protected] and you will be contacted within 48 hours
• You should not refer someone else without their full consent
• You will then get a confidential dedicated point of contact with HEH Mind Workplace Wellbeing Practitioners
• Agree a time to complete
• One to one strengths based holistic wellbeing assessment and a
• Wellbeing action plan with personalised and realistic goals you will then receive
• Up to 6 x 45 min sessions of support with a professional Wellbeing Practitioner
• Information, resources and signposting to other sources of help to improve wellbeing

Thanks to funding from East Hants District Council and Havant Borough Council Economic Development Team, this confidential service, starting 9^th May 2022, will remain free for a minimum of 6 months.

Here is a video presentation from HEH Mind outlining information about mental health and wellbeing and how it might affect your employees and your business. (0- 53 mins). At the end of the presentation there is information about our free workplace wellbeing support for small businesses in Havant and East Hants. (53 mins- 1hr 15mins )

Here are some things you need to think about:-

• How will you promote it to your staff ?
• There may be barriers to staff accessing the service for example some staff really don’t want to tell their line manager or boss they are struggling.
• Could you put “wellbeing” on team meeting agendas throughout the year so the service and taking care of wellbeing is discussed in the workplace – helping to combat stigma.
• Leadership needs to make staff aware of the service while proactively combatting some of the stigma which might prevent staff from discussing their wellbeing.
• Could you ask HEH Mind for some ideas to support you with this? We can provide posters, flyers, information and digital communications about the service.
• Could you contact HEH Mind and get involved in fundraising to show to your staff and the wider community that you support Havant and East Hants Mind and that you believe in helping and promoting better mental health. Raising funds for Havant and East Hants Mind specifically helps us to provide free local services and support in our area. We have a dedicated officer who will help you set this up correctly and provide all the resources to promote your fundraising, email your requests to [email protected]

Also think about the following

• Do they need to tell me they are accessing the service?
• Can my staff access this support in work time?
• Is there a discreet location somewhere at work or should staff access the phone support from home?
• Lets staff

Havant and East Hants Mind, in partnership with Havant Borough Council and East Hampshire District Council, have prepared a booklet outlining the Wellbeing Support Service that is available to small businesses in Havant and East Hants.

To promote the service to businesses and staff there are resources available to download for each of the Havant and East Hants areas.

Havant Resources

East Hants Resources

Some of our business partners give their views and testimonials on the support we provide in this video. Read more about workplace wellbeing on Workplace Wellbeing – Havant & East Hants Mind

For more information about the employee assistance programme, launching on 9th May 2022, or any other mental health and wellbeing for business matter, please email us on [email protected]