St Martin's Clinic
Dr Nicholas Cook
For Employers
"Employers have a duty of care to their employees, which means they should take all steps which are reasonably possible to ensure their health, safety and wellbeing. Demonstrating concern for the physical and mental health of your workers shouldn't just be seen as a legal duty - there's a business case, too. It can be a key factor in building trust and reinforcing your commitment to your employees and can help staff retention, boost productivity, and pave the way to greater employee engagement."
ACAS, 2012.
Employer Services
Assessment
If you have an employee with alcohol, drug or other mental health problems then some form of independent and comparative assessment of their condition, needs, risk and treatment options seems like a good place to start when planning your company's response to the situation. A comprehensive psychological evaluation can help.
The aim of assessment is to arrive at a formulation of the presenting problem that is satisfactory to both client and psychologist. From this perspective assessment is not simply a checklist of symptoms topped off with a few life history details. Rather it is a process of trying to make sense of information by repeatedly building and testing hypotheses that eventually yield a coherent explanation of the employee's presenting problem.
Assessment is informed by the employee's description of their problems, the psychologist's observation of behaviour, cognitive patterns and emotional responses. Additionally, the use of validated psychometric measures and structured clinical interviews can add substantially to the overall picture.
Treatment
Treatment would follow guidelines issued by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and would generally constitute a number of sessions of cognitive therapy.
Reporting
Where assessment and treatment have been initiated by an employer, and depending on agreed conditions of confidentiality, then full psychological reports, risk assessments and progress measures can be produced.