Mental health support and information services FAQs

Simplyhealth have partnered with Spectrum.Life, who are a whole-of-health digital partner that guides organisations and their people to thrive, delivering clinically backed digital health, mental health and wellbeing solutions. They integrate clinical services with advanced digital capabilities and 24/7 in-the-moment support, so that you can live and work well. 

As an organisation, they are a registered provider of the UK EAP Association (EAPA) and are fully compliant with all standards of practice/professional guidelines set by the EAP Industry Association and the guidelines outlined by the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP).

To access this service, a phone number can be accessed through your online portal, via myWellbeing. A qualified counsellor or legal advisor will answer your call.

If you’ve called before, they’ll ask you some security questions. These are simple – your date of birth or postcode. Data security is important, so you must answer these correctly to continue.

They’ll ask what your call relates to. This is to make sure you get the right support, as quickly as possible. If a counsellor answers, and you need legal information, they will transfer you to an advisor and vice versa. In the unlikely event that the appropriate counsellor or advisor is unavailable, they’ll arrange a call-back at the best time for you. 

Spectrum.Life provide both emotional support and practical guidance. The counsellors on the helpline will triage and provide in-the-moment support for early interventions.  

This service can provide you with support for a range of issues such as relationships, low self-esteem, and emotional wellbeing struggles of anxiety, stress or depression. If the Counsellor feels that you would benefit from short-term structured therapy, then they can complete a clinical assessment to determine whether short-term therapy is appropriate for your presenting issues.  

This service is more than just a counselling support service and can help employees with a wide range of practical, day-to-day issues, providing individuals with the appropriate support. The list is extensive so might be easier to say what it doesn’t cover, which is legal advice on employment, criminal issues, and immigration. Using legal as an example, an end-user might want to know information on how to deal with issues with a phone contract. They would match the end-user with a legal expert who might specialise or has experience with this type of query.

This service is designed to support in line with the short-term therapy model, of up to 6 sessions of structured counselling, if deemed clinically appropriate following a clinical assessment.

The service is not designed to provide long-term support or act as an alternative to emergency services. If longer-term support is required, then Spectrum.Life can signpost you to the best places and provide in-the-moment support whilst you seek alternative support.

Diagnosis of a medical condition or prescription of treatments is not covered under this service.

Spectrum.Life deliver short-term solution focussed support, in line with up to six sessions of structured support, per issue, per year.

A short assessment will be completed prior to any structured therapy, to ensure that the short-term solution-focused counselling is clinically safe and appropriate for you.

In line with the principles of Beneficence and Non-maleficence set out in the BACP ethical framework, Spectrum.Life ask that individuals who have accessed short-term counselling sessions through the EAP and wish to continue privately with an affiliate counsellor, paying for this themselves, that they wait for three months before commencing further therapy. This protects the individual and counsellor from emotional and financial issues relating to a potentially inappropriate referral and the employer involved for the same reason. 

All counsellors sign a covenant which prohibits them from continuing with EAP clients in a private capacity without at least three months passing.