Transcript
The following transcript is autogenerated so may contain errors.
Matt Nally
Great. So for part three, with Lionhart, it’d be lovely to look at what does support actually look like in terms of how does the process work. So it feels a bit more familiar, you know, you’re not feeling like you’re getting in touch. And it’s an unknown what as to what’s happening next. So I suppose the the first contact, would that be potentially a form on the website or a phone call.
Parita Odedra
So we’ve got our helpline where someone can contact us through the telephone line where they’ll get access to our support officer. And then more recently, on our website, we’ve also got a chat option that’s available. So you can put your kind of inquiry through there, and then a support officer will get in contact through that option, as well,
Matt Nally
Are there certain hours that’s available, or is that sort of nine to five?
Parita Odedra
So our chat option on the website is available during office hours, nine to five, and then a support officer will kind of get back in contact, we know that making that first phone call is is so difficult for people. So this is just another way to get in contact with us.
Melissa Gough-Rundle
Yeah. And we’ve also found pretend this is one of the reasons why we introduced the web chat function was that if individuals are in an office, and they really feel that they need to be they need that help, now, they can start, they can start that process, they can reach out through the web chat, and start that conversation without having to pick up the phone. So we just recognise that as another way of individuals getting in touch.
Matt Nally
That’s interesting, I suppose actually, once you I suppose once you go through the chat aspect, as a call gets arranged, I assume and is there is that during office hours as well? Or is that available? Sort of, you know, around that, if you work in an office nine to five, Monday to Friday, other than I suppose running out for lunch, when when does the call tend to happen? So
Parita Odedra
calls are normally arranged, you know, something that’s going to work for the RSS professional that we’re supporting. And we’ll just find a time that kind of works for, for us and for them. I think that’s kind of really important. And sometimes if some calls do need to be made, you know, after work, we do try and work around that as well.
Matt Nally
Interesting, okay. And I suppose then what what does a an actual helpline call look like? So if I’m calling you for the first time, what does that process looked like and how long is the call or what happens next?
Parita Odedra
So when our support officers take that first phone call, what they’ll do in that first call is to really understand what the kind of support is looking like what the kind of issues that they’re facing. And sometimes someone ringing in might think that they’re calling in for one thing, and we have this a lot that they might feel that they need support for financial grants, because they’ve lost a job. But when you have that first conversation you delve in deeper He realised that there are other types of support that we’re able to provide them with, and perhaps other issues that are going on in the background. So for example, if someone feels like they need some financial support, we’ll then find out that it’s because perhaps they’re no longer in work at the moment. So we’re also able to look at supporting them, you know, getting into work, or whether the partner or the spouse needs any support. Because I think the thing is, is when we have challenges in life, it doesn’t just affect us as an individual, it affects the whole family. And so we really look at how can we support you, and how can we support the kind of family. So we’ll have a look at what the situation is, and really kind of understand that and then provide them with some options about the support that we can provide. But no, one phone call is the same, like we try to understand what the situation is. And it’s, it’s not a one size fits all. So each phone call will be very different based on you know, what is going on for that particular individual.
Melissa Gough-Rundle
And as Peter says, We really pride ourselves in a holistic approach to those calls, because you do speak to a human being, and they are listening to the challenges that the individual is facing, we do have that ability to look at what else would support individuals. I mean, quite often, we have individuals approaching us for our coaching service, we do have a qualified coach on staff, and those initial Converse conversations will actually unearth that the individual probably needs a little bit of counselling. There’s some real challenges in life that need to be unpacked and dealt with before they can embark on the coaching. So then we have the ability to kind of pause the coaching, look at counselling, and then revert back to the coaching at a later date when it’s more appropriate. So that’s the real benefit of having those support officers on staff and that human being on the end of the line. Yeah.
Matt Nally
Awesome. Okay. And how long is that support available? So we’ve met so we’ve had the first call. Perhaps there’s some if, obviously, further discussions that had with different support people, depending on what the topic was, what the issue is. But But how long is that support available? Is it? Is it ongoing? Is it fixed for a certain amount of time? Yeah, the limits to it, I suppose. No.
Parita Odedra
So I think like Melissa said, I think one of the unique ways in which we which we work means that every person calling, we make sure we understand what their kind of individual circumstances are. So we will tailor our services to their needs. And that’s why it’s so important. The way that we work is that so that individual doesn’t feel like that they’re just a number. So with some of our services, so for example, the counselling service that we’ve got, we offer up to 10 weekly sessions, we find that this number works for most people, if someone required more sessions, that’s something that we do look into. So again, it depends on individual kind of circumstances with that. And our aim is to really stop their difficulties from becoming a crisis. But like I’ve said, again, one size doesn’t fit all. So we will work around that individual, and we are here for them for as long as they need us. And we’ll, we’ll do whatever we can to get them back on their feet and to support them.
Matt Nally
Awesome. And I think one of the things we touched on earlier was the types of areas you cover. But I suppose just to touch on that bit in a bit more detail what types of support are provided, because you’ve we’ve touched on, like mental health aspects, financial and so on. But yeah, what are the sort of key sort of support areas that you that you provide.
Parita Odedra
So we do have a variety of different services that we offer. So like I said, one of our most popular services is our counselling service. So we’ve got in house PACP qualified counsellors, and I know that the waiting times for counsellors in the NHS can be many months, depending on where you are for the country. So with our counsellors, you can be speaking to someone within a couple of weeks. We’re actually also recently expanding our counselling service to also include couples counselling, which we’ve not done before. So we’re really looking forward to offering that service as well. We also help people back to work. So we are here when the tough times kind of hit people and and it can be a struggle sometimes when you’re trying to get back into work, whether that is after a career break or whether that’s after ill health or you know after kind of maternity, so it just really depends on what the situation is, but we do have support available for that as well. And then we’ve also got debt advice that we offer so we can really explore people’s financial situation, and if appropriate, then we can refer people to one of our specialist debt counselling partners. Then we’ve also got our legal advice so that can be a personal or work related matter where they will get kind of one off advice around a legal matter. And then one of our more recent kind of developments is our AAPC support over the last few years. So our support offices offer a free practice session for anyone taking their final assessment, to run through their presentation, and just to really offer tips on their presentation style and tackling nerves, so that they feel as confident as possible going into the big day. And while we don’t offer any technical advice, many candidates have found it really useful just to have an impartial sounding board and then have gone on to pass their chartership as well. So yeah, this supports been really, really popular. And then we have got, you know, general support that people will call through for so we’ve got our support officers that can help with kind of pretty much other things as well. You know, things like anxiety, stress, or whether it’s dealing with bereavement, it could be a one off conversation that someone needs to have. So, you know, there is like a very wide variety of surfaces that we have. And then we also have our financial grants as well. So we support people financially,
Melissa Gough-Rundle
as well, yeah, those financial grants that we get, we have emergency cover, don’t you as well as actual support, we do have a non means tested, emergency grant. And we’ve been able to help surveys in Ukraine and Turkey recently who have been made homeless or displaced. And we’re really proud to be able to do that, because we can get it to them very quickly. You know, it might be before insurances kick in, or if they’re just not have the access to finances, and they need to find somewhere to stay, or they need emergency supplies. And we can get back to them fairly quickly. So there is that additional area that we have to financial support as well. And I think, Peter, you were talking about APC, I think the biggest feedback we get is that it really has helped them with the nerves, I think we quite often get contacted by individuals who have been referred, and not just once, you know, more than multiple times. And, you know, sometimes those individuals have really got to the stage where they’re like, well, is surveying really for me? Do I need to look at another career, and we’ve been able to help talk them through what what is causing the difficulty with the AAPC and help them to succeed. And a lot of them have gone on to succeed after referral because they’ve been able to contact us and we’ve been able to support them.
Parita Odedra
Yeah, it’s so lovely when you get that feedback. And they’ve said that we’ve passed our our final assessment and and thank you so much. But yeah, I think all the feedback that we get from the people that we support is, is just so heartwarming, and it’s yeah, really, really nice.
Matt Nally
It’s nice that you can hear the passion coming through, I think it’s it’s quite an impressive array of services. And I think it does help to alleviate any fear you might have about is this something I can talk about? Because I don’t think there was much that I can’t think of anything that wasn’t covered in that. We said it’s you really can’t really reach out anything and it means you’ll have had those conversations probably a number of times before so you’ll be able to help provide different solutions. So that’s quite impressive. I think the only other aspects I think we discussed before there’s some sort of training opportunities available as well. What does that cover? Is that the AAPC part? areas for that? No.
Parita Odedra
So there’s yeah, there’s so many different areas, I think over the last I’d say kind of five years, especially since COVID, we’ve really expanded are kind of a training programme to that. So it covers webinars as well as some workshops as well. So we’ve got five main areas for our training programme. We’ve got firstly, webinars around wellbeing, so things like you know, work life balance or 360 degree approach to mental well being. We’ve also got webinars around career development, so things like better presentation skills and beyond the imposter syndrome. We’ve mentioned sort of the APC support. So if we have got some webinars around people that are visiting their APC, so things like supercharge your well being, you know, boosting your resilience and building your confidence as well. And then from some feedback that we’ve received with we’ve also developed webinars for post APC, so people that have just passed their APC. We had feedback that there was a lot of support available when you’re sitting your npc but then once you’ve passed, you’re kind of just left to devices to kind of start your career. So we’ve developed some webinars to help people starting out in their career as well. So things like better skills for business and relationship management for work as an example. So they are all on our website. We’ve actually got over just over 40 different webinars and workshops that cover all of these topics, as well as some financial education ones as well, we understand that not everyone is going to be able to, you know, view a live webinar, or perhaps attend like a face to face workshop. So we have got a webinar library that sits on our website. And so they can be accessed anytime and you’re able to view or download the webinars there as well. And then just adding to our training programme. As mentioned before, we’ve just recently launched our first ever podcast series around wellbeing. So we’ve got six episodes that sit on our website. And some of those topics are things like overwhelm, and burnout, burnout, social anxiety, you know, different difficult situations at work, fear, failure and disappointment. So we’re now looking at recording more particle podcasts next year, and kind of keeping that going. So we’ve we’ve tried to offer a variety of different, you know, training methods, so things that people can listen to, they can watch, they can download, or we can have face to face as well.
Matt Nally
That’s awesome. Yeah, there’s a lot of good resources there. So definitely what something’s worth. Definitely worth checking out.