Parents worried about their children’s mental health are now one of the top three reasons employees contact workplace employee assistance programmes (EAPs).
Data from the Employee Assistance Professionals Association (EAPA UK) shows that of the estimated 623,000 UK employees who contacted EAPs in the past year, concern for the mental health of children ranked as the third most common reason. The top two reasons are employee concerns about relationships at home and work relationships.
The findings, published in EAPA UK’s latest report, ‘Focusing on the Job: EAPs and Keeping Britain Working’, show that rising demand and growing expectations of EAPs are increasingly pushing these services beyond their traditional counselling role. Alongside broader wellbeing services, EAPs have delivered more than one million counselling sessions to employees in the past year alone.
Unsung support
“The role of EAPs is still under-estimated,” said Karl Bennett, chair of EAPA UK, adding: “What would the picture of mental health in the workforce be like without the 24/7 professional advice provided, and the immediate access to counselling, if those hundreds of thousands of enquiries and counselling sessions had to be provided solely by the NHS?
“The growth in the numbers of working parents reaching out to EAPs is another indication of the mental health challenges being faced by society.”
The figures come amid mounting concern about children’s mental health more broadly.
Elizabeth Hampson, partner at Deloitte, who leads on health policy and innovation strategy, said: “The most recent NHS England figures suggest one in five children aged 8 to 16 now have a mental health disorder, up from one in eight in 2017. This significant rise may be a factor in why many parents use EAPs to discuss their children’s mental health alongside their own.
“Deloitte’s 2024 report, ‘Mental health and employers: the case for employers to invest in supporting working parents and a mentally healthy workplace’, identified parents’ concerns for their children as a major issue, as well as the potential for impact on work performance and retention. Time constraints, feelings of guilt, navigating financial pressures and setting boundaries between work and family life all contribute to feelings of a lack of control.”
EAPA data shows that EAPs are available to more than half of the UK’s working population, equivalent to 18.675 million employees.
AI supplement
The data also shows that these programmes continue to evolve to meet changing workforce needs. Almost half of providers have added more than five additional wellbeing services to their offering in the past five years, and more than half are now using non-human clinical interventions such as AI to supplement traditional counselling and advice.
