Adding further counselling session with Health Assured for UK only

The following article provides information on the processes surrounding requests for additional counselling services. These can either be requested by the counsellor or employer and will be dealt with on a case by case basis.

Request from Affiliate counsellor

If an employee’s counsellor identifies the need for additional counselling sessions, they must complete an additional session request form and refer this to Health Assured’s case management team for review. The form must be signed by the employee, as this confirms the employee has given consent to HA sharing confidential information with their employer should we need to seek approval.

If Health Assured believes the request for additional sessions is clinically appropriate, in line with the short term intervention that we provide, and consent has been given by the employee, we will contact the appropriate individual within the business for approval of additional sessions. If the employer confirms they are happy to fund the additional counseling sessions, Health Assured will notify the counselor and ask them to arrange the subsequent counseling sessions directly with the employee.

If either Health Assured or the employer, declines the request for additional sessions, the counselor will be notified accordingly and will be asked to ensure that appropriate onwards signposting has been made to the individual for appropriate support.

Our clinical governance states that a request must be received before the final sessions have taken place (usually at the midway point) as it would become apparent at this stage that the initial counseling entitlement may not be sufficient to work through the presenting issues. If a request is sent through when the sessions are concluding, and the request is denied either by Health Assured or the employer, then this could potentially be detrimental for an individual as the appropriate onwards recommendations to other support networks may not have been made.

Request from employer

If an employer would like to request additional counseling sessions for an employee, we are happy for this to be sent directly to the case management team at casemanager@healthassured.co.uk, along with the employee's full name so that the correct counseling case can be identified. An ad hoc referral form can also be sent if the employer wishes to do so.

The request will then be reviewed by the case management team, and the employee’s counselor will be contacted for a clinical recommendation. The recommendation will then be reviewed by the team and the Clinical Lead’s, to ensure that the additional sessions are found to be clinically appropriate, and in line with the short term intervention being provided by Health Assured.

If the recommendation is deemed appropriate, we will refer back to the employer for final approval of the recommended sessions, and once this has been confirmed, the counselor will be notified accordingly to proceed with said sessions.

If the recommendation is that additional sessions would not be of benefit, or if it is identified that longer term or specialist support outside of the Health Assured provision is needed for an individual, this will be communicated back to the employer accordingly. If it is necessary to do so, we can arrange for an internal counselor to make support calls to the individual to advise of onwards steps if this is needed.

Costs for Additional Sessions

Additional sessions are to be paid to Health Assured directly.

• Face-to-face and online counselling: £77.00 plus VAT per session
• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy: £125.00 plus VAT per session.