The World Health Organisation marks World Mental Health Day (WMHD) on 10 October every year to raise awareness of mental health issues and to help people get support.
This year’s theme is suicide prevention - almost 800,000 people die in the world by suicide every year. The link between suicide and mental health is well recognised, however, personal moments of crisis such as experience of loss, financial problems and illness can be factors too.
At Bupa we believe there’s no health without mental health. Our purpose is to help people live longer, healthier, happier lives so we aim to support our employees’ and our customers’ mental health at every stage of their life.
Poor mental health is one of the biggest challenges faced by our customers today, including in the workplace. According to the City Mental Health Alliance, 44% of employers are seeing an increase in reported mental health challenges. At Bupa, we have seen calls to one of our mental health services increase by 53% in the past two years, showing that mental health is still having a significant impact on all areas of society. We’ve also seen a rise in our corporate customers’ employees seeking mental health guidance for their family and children.
To help support our customers, we’re proud to provide the UK’s most extensive mental health cover. Our insurance customers benefit from:
No ‘chronic’ limits: we support customers whenever they need it and, crucially, if the mental health condition ever comes back.
Extended cover: we cover everything that is commonly classified as a mental health condition, including bipolar, all addictions and personality disorders. We also support learning, behavioural and developmental conditions.
On-going support: we help empower people to manage their condition, funding regular check-ups which can lead to better outcomes, clinically and commercially.
We also have made it easier for our customers to get the support they need with advice from our specialist mental health team. In 2019 we launched our #OpenUp campaign which helps businesses create a supportive work culture.
Last year, we produced a Mental Health Guide for Parents, which helps parents recognise and deal with common issues among children such as anxiety disorders and depression.
Since 2015 the Bupa UK Foundation has awarded £1.7m to over 65 projects to improve mental health. Projects funded include Bipolar UK’s telephone and email peer support service, delivered by and for people with bipolar, and Groundswell’s Homeless Health Peer Advocacy Programme, which supports people experiencing homeless in tackling complex mental health needs.
Our mental health work also spans the world. The Bupa Health Foundation in Australia awarded £1 million to support practical research into innovative ways of improving mental healthcare in the country.
In Spain, our Psychological Virtual Assistant means customers with mental health challenges can access support online. The assistant relies on an artificial intelligence (AI) system developed by the Psychology and Psychiatry teams in our hospitals, together with our in-house artificial intelligence experts. Over 3,700 customers have used the service since its launch in October 2018.
Bupa is committed to supporting the mental health of our customers, our employees and our local communities. We strive for a world where more people feel supported, enabling them to talk openly about, and take care of, their mental health.
About Bupa
Bupa's purpose is helping people live longer, healthier, happier lives and making a better world.
We are an international healthcare company serving over 31 million customers worldwide. With no shareholders, we reinvest profits into providing more and better healthcare for the benefit of current and future customers.
We directly employ around 85,000 people, principally in the UK, Australia, Spain, Chile, Poland, New Zealand, Hong Kong SAR, Turkey, Brazil, Mexico, the US, Middle East and Ireland. We also have associate businesses in Saudi Arabia and India.
