Wednesday 2 April 2025
‘Support 2 Work’ is being co-created with patients in contact with employment advisors in NHS Talking Therapies and the public to understand the social and economic impacts of employment advisors on improving mental health and the way people do their jobs.
Our Trust and University of York are leading the research, which has received funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s (NIHR) Work and Health Research Initiative.
The project’s other partners include the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Canada, the Office for National Statistics, PCMIS Health Technologies, University of Sheffield and University of Strathclyde.
Employment advisors work with Talking Therapies therapists to help people start, stay in, or go back to work.
The nationwide study aims to see if different groups of people benefit more or less from seeing an employment advisor, which clinicians and researchers hope in the long term could help decrease healthcare costs and improve the economy.
Professor Rowena Jacobs, Deputy Head of Department at the Centre for Health Economics at the University of York and project lead for ‘Support 2 Work’, said: “One in five workers have a mental health problem and many people with mental health problems are not working. This has a big impact on people, employers, the NHS and the economy.
“Employment advisors can help people find jobs they enjoy or make changes at work, which can in turn improve their mental health.
“There are currently no studies that have looked at the NHS Talking Therapies Employment Advisors programme in detail, therefore ‘Support 2 Work’ will be the first of its kind and provide an insight into the service’s effectiveness.”
The ‘Support 2 Work’ project will use different methods to gather results, including new datasets and interviews.
Professor Jacobs added: “The research will look at a range of data provided by the Office for National Statistics, NHS Talking Therapies, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). We will also use interviews to find out why people use the Employment Advisors programme, how long they have used it for and how they perceive the support they get.
“Interviewees will be recruited through Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust (TEWV) and will include 30 employment advisors, 10 therapists and 60 people who have seen an employment advisor in the last 12 months. They will also include a mixture of people who are working, looking for work or on sick leave and struggling. This will support us with gathering enough data to be able to help a greater number of different people.
“To look at the impact of Employment Advisors on healthcare costs, the research will examine NHS Talking Therapies’ data of people using the service and their hospital records including the number of hospital visits they have had.
“The research project will take three years to complete and will help create descriptions of people who could potentially do well from seeing an Employment Adviser. An example might be a police officer struggling with work after an upsetting event or an unemployed healthcare worker with anxiety problems.
“For each description, we will show how Employment Advisers can help people. We will discuss these descriptions with our policy advisory and patient and public involvement groups and use them to write up ideas of how to improve the service.
“We will share these with the government, the NHS, and patient groups to ultimately help people with poor mental health, employers, policymakers and the economy.”
Professor Lucy Chappell, chief scientific adviser at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and chief executive officer of the NIHR, said: “Investing in research to support employees to stay healthy and remain in work is crucial for the future of our economy. It has the potential to deliver substantial economic and social benefits for individuals, employers and wider society.
“The NIHR’s Work and Health Research Initiative builds on existing investment in research in this area, helping to support the UK’s economic growth and boost health and wellbeing across the UK.”
Claire de Oliveira, a member of the research team and senior health economist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, said: “It’s very exciting to be funded by the NIHR to explore the role of mental health on work-related outcomes within the NHS Talking Therapies’ Employment Adviser programme. This work will be of relevance not only to the UK but also to inform the design and implementation of similar programs elsewhere in the world, such as the Ontario Structured Psychotherapy Program.”
