Gloucestershire mental health workplace resource company sees spike in demand

A company based in Poulton, Gloucestershire, which provides resources to workplaces to help support their mental health has seen demand for services double between 2021 – 2022.

Team Doctor, which is also a member of the Business West Chambers of Commerce, is a collaboration between Team-i, a successful Teamwork and Leadership development organisation and The Sound Doctor, the UK’s leading source of health education for patients using films, animations, interactive e-learning programmes, and podcasts.

The Sound Doctor was established in 2012 by ex-BBC journalists, Rosie Runciman and Dominic Arkwright who wanted to give the same quality of health education to patients that they provided in current affairs stories.

Team Doctor’s workplace mental health programme consists of twenty films which include interviews with experts and address questions employees may have about stress, anxiety, and mental health at work.

Rosie said: “I think if you were in a room in a meeting, there would be almost nobody there who has not in their working life, experienced stress and anxiety at work.

“And it's about how you deal with it, isn't it? Do you have the confidence? If you don't have the confidence? Where can you go? What can you do? And I think people need to know that there are options.”

The surge in demand for Team Doctor’s services has come as the World Health Organization has found that the pandemic has triggered a 25 per cent increase in prevalence of anxiety and depression worldwide.

A report from Champion Health, which polled 2,200 UK employees, also found that two-thirds (67 per cent) were experiencing moderate to high levels of stress, while more than a quarter (28 per cent) had seen their productivity negatively impacted within the last two years.

Rosie added: “It's really important for colleagues to notice if things are becoming too much for somebody. The key person who needs to do this is the line manager.

“But it can sometimes be the case that because managers may not have issues themselves, they haven’t accessed material before and therefore do not have sufficient understanding of the problems.

“If they can gain an understanding of how what they do or say can impact the team, then they can really benefit employees’ wellbeing.”