A multi-award-winning group of private residential care and nursing centres, Forest Healthcare, has announced the launch of an Employee Assistance Programme, MENTOR, in partnership with NatWest Group.
This initiative augments the existing support and family-feel care Forest Healthcare is known for, ensuring colleagues can access confidential healthcare services and counselling when they need help, whether at work or in their personal lives.
The Drive Behind Forest Healthcare’s Investments in Employee Well-Being
Forest Healthcare has long advocated for the importance of supporting care professionals and other colleagues to ensure they can be their best selves inside and outside the care centre environment, and the firm already regularly raises funds for The Care Workers Charity.
The group regards its personnel as its greatest strength and most valuable asset. It is considered an outstanding employer, with real-world examples of progression opportunities, including the journey of CEO Amanda Scott, who joined the group as a Care Assistant.
MENTOR focuses equally on mental and physical health, with employees able to access a broad range of on-demand services, which include:
- Proactive care through the Your Care health management platform
- Advice around living costs, debt and domestic abuse
- Support with life stages such as menopause
- Self-help resources, including apps and content to augment mental resilience
- Phone-based counselling and private support services
This new Employee Assistance Programme is designed to benefit both Forest Healthcare as a business and its people.
It ensures there are swift, effective ways for staff to manage health concerns, activate positive lifestyle changes, and boost self-worth, while giving caregivers and support colleagues the depth of support they need to feel and perform at their best.
Evidence Supporting the Value of the MENTOR Employee Assistance Programme
The NatWest Group has conducted research to quantify the impacts of the MENTOR programme and its role within crucial sectors such as residential care. It found that key outcomes include the ability to keep great people working together, augmented mental welfare in the workplace, and having direct routes to resolving conflicts.
Proactive care, which seeks to provide appropriate avenues of support before a team member becomes physically or mentally unwell or when external pressures begin to affect their performance, is considered the gold standard, ensuring that when issues arise, they are addressed well before the point of crisis.
In contrast, reactive care, which becomes available only after the fact, is shown to take twice as long for a team member to return to work, with knock-on impacts on care recipients and families from prolonged staff absences.
NatWest MENTOR indicates that investing in employees’ happiness and health is also commercially beneficial, with returns of up to £10.85 for each £1 invested.
Forest Healthcare’s Scheme to Promote Positive Work-Life Balance for Care Professionals
Amanda Scott, Chief Executive Officer from Forest Healthcare says, ‘Forest Healthcare’s motto is that we’ll do whatever it takes to bring you peace of mind, and this applies in equal measure to the managers, coordinators, administrators, nurses and activities coordinators who represent our ethos and values as to the residents, families and communities we serve, and we’re delighted to introduce a full-scope Employee Assistance Programme.
The concept of a great work-life balance has perhaps become clichéd, but for care professionals whose compassion and reliability have a marked impact on the quality of life for those living in residential nursing facilities, its importance cannot be overstated.
The MENTOR programme felt like a natural fit because we know there can never be the expectation that personnel who may be experiencing mental health concerns or crises in their personal lives will have the capacity or energy to provide exceptional care for residents.
Our goal is to ensure that every colleague, working in any role from housekeeping to catering, direct care delivery to nursing, feels appreciated and respected in every aspect of their lives, and can come to work with the focus and positivity that make our care centres special places.’
More details about the NatWest Group MENTOR programme and the Employee Assistance Scheme from Forest Healthcare are available online or by contacting the businesses directly.
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About Forest Healthcare
Forest Healthcare is an established care provider dedicated to consistently delivering an outstanding quality of life to the residents they serve. With a network of care centres across South-East England, Forest Healthcare specialises in catering to a wide range of care requirements, including residential, nursing, dementia and specialist care. The organisation’s mission is to provide a family feel to the exceptional care they deliver by valuing, respecting and caring for each and every person who lives and works at Forest Healthcare.
