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Mark, Nottingham - "Covid made things a lot harder... the hardest thing I've gone through."

Futures has been working with Insight Healthcare in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire since January 2018 to provide an additional helping hand to those people referred by the NHS for support with their mental health.

Together we provide free NHS talking therapy services and a range of employee wellbeing programmes across the UK.

In December 2021, the HSE published its annual statistics covering work-related stress, anxiety, and depression. They found that of the 822,000 workers suffering from work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2020/21 almost 55% reported that this was caused or made worse by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

In 2021 alone, we supported over 750 people across Nottinghamshire.

39-year-old Mark was one of those people.

“I was really struggling with life and didn't want to be on the planet anymore. I had the weight of a potential redundancy hanging over me and Covid-19 had made things a lot harder. I was suffering with low mood and depression... It was the hardest thing I've gone through.

When I started with Betti, my Futures adviser, I didn't really have many aspirations. I just wanted to put something in place that was positive for me. The help and support I received gave me strength to get through my darkest days and it gave me something to work on which I didn't think was possible because I felt trapped in my own life.

Part way through the process I got made redundant, which hit me for six because I really wanted to change my career on my own terms, but I realised quite quickly that life isn't really like that.

Betti was wonderful throughout. It definitely felt like I was starting from the ground up again, and this only really became possible with the support and the access to the knowledge base that my adviser had.

Without the support I got from the therapy sessions and the careers advice I feel I would still pretty much be in a mess. I feel proud of what I’ve achieved and am thankful for all the support I was given. I feel stronger and was able to cope with things better which gave me the confidence going forward to actually apply for jobs. Eventually I became successful in my application for a new job which at the start I never thought was going to be possible.

I never thought I would be able to climb the mountain but I did and I did it with love and support from Betti.”

Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) is an NHS service established in 2008, and together we support people with mental health needs who are accessing talking therapies.

Futures' role is work with those who are experiencing employment-related difficulties. Our team of dedicated careers advisers work directly with Insight Healthcare, to allow them to provide as much support as they can at such a difficult time in their lives. From those signed off sick, unhappy in their current role, those who are unemployed or people who may be struggling with workplace bullying. If you'd like to find out more about Insight or access help, just click here.

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