Health Assured – Free 24/7 confidential helpline
07 Dec 2020
New service offering confidential help and support from trained counsellors and advisors now available to all staff and students
Following the recent launch of a 24 hour mental health helpline for students, a similar service is now available to support our staff.
The free to call helpline is provided by an independent external provider, Health Assured. It offers access to support from trained counsellors and advisors who are ready to listen and provide practical advice and emotional support on issues such as:
- Mental health information and support
- Stress
- Personal legal information and signposting
- Personal financial information and signposting
- Family issues including childcare and elder care
- Housing and tenancy concerns
- Relationship and marital changes
- Medical information
- Bereavement
How to access the helpline
Call 0800 028 0199 and one of Health Assured’s advisors will answer. You’ll be asked to confirm our university and what your issue relates to, and then be put through to the right advisor to help.
If an appropriate advisor is unavailable or on another call, you can request a call back at a time that suits you. Lines are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year – you’ll always be able to speak to someone who can help.
Find out more about what will happen when you call the helpline and the kinds of things you can get help with:
Please note that our subscription to Health Assured is for ‘one off’ support sessions. You can choose to call back if you want to talk again, but it’s unlikely that you’ll speak with the same counsellor and they won’t be aware of what you may have said in previous calls. Calls are confidential and what you say will never be shared with anyone at the University.
My Healthy Advantage App and Wellbeing Portal
In addition to the helpline, you can also access Health Assured’s ‘My Healthy Advantage’ App and an online Wellbeing Portal. Offering an enhanced set of wellbeing tools and features designed to improve your mental and physical health, you can access mini-health checks, download programmes and view a range of articles and videos. A Live Chat service is also available online, though this is not 24 hours or always available.
How to access the App and Portal
To access the App you’ll need what’s known as an Employer Code, unique to our University. To access the Wellbeing Portal you’ll need to use our University’s allocated login details. These can be found in the following document (requires University login).
Existing support services
The new resource is in addition to all existing University support services, including our in-house Counselling and Mental Health Service. We aim to provide different ways to access support to allow you to choose the service that feels right for you.
If you’d prefer not to speak to someone on the phone then we also have Togetherall – an anonymous and confidential free online mental health and wellbeing resource where you can access peer support through an online community. Please visit our dedicated support page for more information.