TAL to Offer Life Coaching For Mental Health Claimants

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TAL will offer free life coaching services to people with income protection claims associated with depression or anxiety, as part of a new partnership with Remedy Healthcare.

TAL Head of Mental Health, Glenn Baird

Under the partnership, TAL will add Remedy Healthcare’s MindStep program to its current suite of health support services, and claimants who use the optional service will have access to trained mental health coaches offering a series of behavior activation sessions aimed at increasing motivation and assisting in improved wellbeing.

The seven-week program is designed to complement care provided to the claimant by a GP, psychologist or psychiatrist and draws on the UK-based ‘Improving Access to Psychological Therapies’ service, which has been used with more than 1 million people.

TAL Head of Mental Health, Glenn Baird said the program builds out the life insurer’s mental health capability by providing addition support mechanisms that can improve the health of claimants and assist them in returning to work.

“Mental health is an important focus for TAL and one of the top three reasons our customers claimed in 2017. We are committed to providing the best possible support for our customers with mental health conditions and one of the ways we do this is by facilitating access to mental health support through partnerships with the external health community,” Baird said.

Remedy Healthcare Executive General Manager, David Brajkovic, said the MindStep program had resulted in a measurable improvement in the mental health of more than 70 per cent of previous participants.

The partnership follows similar arrangements in the mental health space announced in 2017 including working with the Black Dog Institute and the University of Sydney to explore alternative risk predictors of mental health disorders (see: TAL Expands Mental Health Focus).



1 COMMENT

  1. My wife is a receptionist at a mental health practice.

    There is a drastic shortage of psychiatrists in this country. Our veterans cannot obtain appropriate professional care because most psychiatrists are booked out for months.

    Governments are seemingly incapable of addressing this issue.

    So while I welcome the TAL initiative, as long as it comes without compulsion or a threat to reduce benefits, unless there is serious attention given to the lack of psychiatrists in Australia in private practice, such initiatives may well founder on the rocky shoals of government ignorance,

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