Mental health and wellbeing support

Author: Dr. Kristy MacDonald

Date published

5 February 2021

The Institution of Structural Engineers The Institution of Structural Engineers
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Mental health and well-being support

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Author

Dr. Kristy MacDonald

Date published

5 February 2021

Author

Dr. Kristy MacDonald

Looking after the mental and emotional wellbeing of our members is more important than ever.

In the summer of 2020, the Benevolent Fund started a partnership with Anxiety UK. The partnership aims to provide support services to beneficiaries in need of therapeutic help for anxiety, stress or anxiety-based depression.

Traditionally the Fund’s help has been via financial assistance. This might mean loans, grants, benefits advice and so on. But we’ve been working on how we can support our members in other ways too, which is how the partnership with Anxiety UK came about.

I think the partnership helps to show the Benevolent Fund in a different light. We’re not just about giving grants and we recognise that the struggles our members face are varied.

Current and former members of the Institution of Structural Engineers Benevolent Fund, and their dependents, can now benefit from support from an Anxiety UK Approved Therapist. Support can be accessed quickly without a lengthy NHS waiting list. Our aim is to offer early support and treatment, and I hope the partnership will encourage members to ask for help.

Structural engineers are very proud and generally people only come to us for financial assistance when they are absolutely in need. We want to help them before it gets to that stage, to stop it going that far and it is the same with mental and emotional wellbeing too.

We hope that if we continuously promote the access to therapy available through our partnership with Anxiety UK it will reduce some of the stigma around mental health struggles. We’d like to do what we can to ‘normalise’ these challenges a bit more.

Looking after the mental and emotional wellbeing of our members is important at any time, irrespective of what has happened with the pandemic, but it is now more important than ever.



  What support can the Benevolent Fund offer members? Contact the Benevolent Fund

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