Our unique service will enable your organisation to offer specialist support to your staff and have a positive impact on the workforce.

Health Visitor Direct can provide Health Visiting services for your employees with Pre School Children to support the employer in reducing and managing sickness and absence.

Health Visitors are qualified Nurses with a specialist qualification in Child Health and maternal mental health.

FOCUS

Health Visitor Direct will assist you in continuing in support employees by offering a unique package to support those employees through the anxieties of the formative years of being a parent.

By embracing Health Visitor Direct's services your organisation will see a reduction on illness and absence, better performance and increased staff morale.

GOALS

To give expert support to staff with a child aged 0-5

Increased staff morale and loyalty to the company

Increase wellbeing and productivity of staff

Reduce staff shortages through absence and illnesses

Reduce members of staff with postnatal depression

Assist HR function by offering specialist skills therefore reducing line management time and responsibility

Ensure better performance of staff in the target group

Reduce long term sickness

Assist your organisation  with education and speaker events

Build good relationships with staff based on your corporate values

CURRENT AREAS OF CONCERN

Health Visitors, with their specialist skills and knowledge are the most experienced and qualified people to support parents during the most anxious time of parent hood. Traditionally health visitors have visited parents in the home regularly to offer support in all areas of parenting and are usually the first point of contact in the community post birth.

Over recent years there has been a large decline in Health Visitor numbers and there is now a national shortage, which often means parents are not getting the support/advice they need. Many parents not having received that support and guidance will return to work anxious and will require manager assistance to support them and unscheduled time off work to cope with this stress may be a result.

Between 10% and 15% of women suffer from post natal depression (PND) following childbirth. This can impact on the time they take off work following maternity leave and may delay their return to work. This can cause stress not only to the employer but to the woman who then worries about loss of income.

Health Visitors are the main source of support for women suffering from PND. Men whose partners suffer from PND are often anxious about their partners and may also need to take time of work to help support her or to help look after the baby.

Some psychiatrists have claimed that men as well as women can suffer from postnatal depression. Research studies have claimed that between 10 and 15 per cent of men suffer from postnatal depression, matching the proportion of female sufferers.

Sleep or lack of it is one of the main concerns parents have when returning to work. Sleep problems in babies are very common and this has a big impact on both parents. Health Visitors are experts in sleep management in children.

Sleep deprivation can have serious effects on health in the form of physical and mental impairments. Inadequate rest impairs our ability to think, handle stress, maintain a healthy immune system and moderate our emotions. Without adequate rest, the brain's ability to function quickly deteriorates. The brain works harder to counteract sleep deprivation effects, but operates less effectively: concentration levels drop, and memory becomes impaired.

Similarly, the brain's ability to problem solve is greatly impaired. Decision-making abilities are compromised, and the brain falls into rigid thought patterns that make it difficult to generate new problem-solving ideas. Insufficient rest can also cause people to have hallucinations. Other typical effects of sleep deprivation include:

• depression
• heart disease
• hypertension
• irritability
• slower reaction times
• slurred speech
• tremors.

Eight out of 10 women in a survey of working mothers had returned to work when their baby was an average of 22 weeks old. Half of working mothers said their bosses had shown little sympathy for their fatigue, while 77 per cent said the lack of sleep affected their ability to do their job.

The survey by Mother & Baby magazine found that working mothers suffered the most when it came to sleep deprivation. Sleep starvation left 37 per cent feeling depressed and 61 per cent were regularly reduced to tears.
Three-quarters of mothers said they thought they had the work-life balance wrong, and almost half wanted to leave work and be a full-time parent.

Commentators said that the stress of combining work with motherhood was taking its toll on both parents and children.

These issues have real effects on staff wellbeing and performance at work. Health Visitor Direct Limited through its experience of supporting parents can offer your organisation solutions to help staff wellbeing and making a positive impact on morale and productivity at work.

OBJECTIVES

Health Visitor Direct offers your staff

Unique 24 hour contact service with a Health Visitor offering support in every area of parenting and maternal/paternal mental health *

Unique Health Visitor Counselling services via confidential one to one web chat at a time to suit staff.

Regular Health Education speaker sessions covering current evidence based issues.

Pre-arranged one to one sessions with staff within the speaker events.

Health Visitor Direct Services are confidential

Health Visitor Direct audit and share non confidential information with clients and will share evaluation of uptake the service with the organisation

* Tiered approach dependent on numbers of employees you wish to target

To discuss how Health Visitor Direct can assist your organisation with a unique package Contact us