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What is Unmind Help?
Depending on your employer's contract with us, Unmind Help offers a number of different services.
Crisis line
Unmind Help provides a free 24/7 confidential helpline so you can access immediate crisis support whenever you need it.
You might call the crisis line if:
- You are having suicidal thoughts or thoughts of harming yourself or someone else
- You are feeling suddenly overwhelmed or at breaking point
- You feel unable to cope, or as if you will not be able to manage for much longer
- You feel so distressed that you don’t know what to do
- You are hearing unpleasant voices or feel that people are watching you or trying to hurt you
- You feel you are having an urgent mental health crisis
- You need to talk to someone right now
Calls are answered within 1 minute by clinically trained staff who will listen to you and help you work through immediate problems. They will ask you some questions to understand how you are feeling, what you are looking for help with, and establish what support you might need. They can provide advice, help you to find ways to move forward, get further support or suggest ways of coping.
If you have a medical emergency or are at imminent threat then please call your local emergency services.
How is crisis support different to therapy?
Crisis support is a short-term (usually single session) intervention used to address an immediate mental health emergency, to help stabilise and support you in the moment, create a safety plan for your next steps and future treatment and support if needed. Although the crisis line may be called by someone who is in therapy, it is not a substitute for therapy.
Critical incident response
Unmind Help provides a 24/7 helpline for managers and HR representatives to call to request critical incident support following a traumatic incident that occurs within, or that has had an impact on the workplace.
Examples include:
- Violent workplace incidents, threats, assaults, hostage taking, shooting, stabbing, unexplained death or murder
- Unusually high stress work situations, e.g. excessive media involvement, intense conflict, intense workload coupled with intense public scrutiny
- Serious injuries (this could be for the individual affected and/or their colleagues)
- Fatal and non-fatal accidents: air, train, road traffic accidents, explosions, fires
- The sudden death of an employee, family member or contact known to the workforce
- Suicides of staff members, contacts, or patients (if in a healthcare setting)
- Major organisational announcements, restructuring and reorganisation
- Any other event defined as critical in nature such as a natural disaster, earthquake, ice storm, tornado etc.
When someone experiences a traumatic event, they can typically experience common stress reactions such as confusion, fear, hopelessness, anger, grief, shock, and guilt. People react in different ways and at different times. Distress can interfere with coping so by reducing their immediate distress, people can have a better ability to cope in the short and long term.
Not everyone may need or want support. Employees should be allowed to choose whether or not they participate. Some people can manage difficult situations on their own or with help from others.
The goal of critical incident support is to:
- reduce the psychological impact of the incident
- support employees and minimise the likelihood of prolonged stress responses that may lead to absenteeism, and errors or accidents at work
- support managers in how to best support employees and to create a safe and functioning workplace post-incident
- provide guidance and recommendations specific to organisational needs
Support can be provided in-person or online, and at an individual or group level.
How is critical incident response different to therapy?
Critical incident response connects people with resources and support for their immediate needs in the aftermath of an incident, and promotes safety, connection, hope, and self-efficacy (their belief that they can cope). It might include:
- ensuring people are safe and comfortable
- stabilising, calming and orientating people
- identifying people’s immediate needs
- offering practical assistance
- connecting people with resources, services, family and friend support
- providing basic information on stress reactions and coping, and normalising one’s response
It is not:
- therapy or mental health treatment
- encouraging a detailed discussion of the event
- asking someone to analyse what has happened to them or why they might be responding in a certain way
- encouraging someone to share their feelings or reaction to the event
- telling people how they should feel or what they should do
Most people recover naturally from trauma without the need for formal mental heath treatment or therapy. Encouraging them to take up therapy or offering therapy at this time can be unhelpful and unnecessary.
Sometimes people will need referring onto professional mental health support if they have particularly strong emotional response, a complex reaction eg stop eating, are suicidal, or already have a diagnosis of a severe mental health problem.
Financial and Legal Support
Unmind Help provides a 24/7 helpline to connect you to financial and legal support.
Employees can be put in contact with a financial advisor/counsellor to assist with a breadth of financial concerns including bankruptcy, budgeting, debt, financial aspects of separation and divorce, real estate, investment planning, mortgages, retirement planning, and tax concerns. They can help during challenging times by analysing finances and spending habits, and providing tools and information to create a money plan to get back on track.
Employees also have access to in-depth help and information on legal issues such as consumer advice, debt advice, financial law, motoring offences, wills and probate, criminal law, family law, medical law, personal injury and neighbour disputes.
Please note appointments may not be immediate and financial and legal services may differ by region.
How to access Unmind Help
If your employer has granted you access to Unmind Help you can find the number to call by following the following steps:
- Navigate to your Unmind platform a yourdomain.unmind.com
- Click the icon in the top right of the screen
- Click on Mental Health Resources
- Click on Internal
The layout of the Internal section will differ depending on how your employer has configured it.