In a first for the travel industry, TravelManagers has engaged a leading psychological wellbeing group to look after the welfare of its personal travel managers (PTMs) and help with any questions or concerns they may have.
Every PTM can have up to six free sessions a year.
Mental and psychological issues, regarded for too long as problems to be “swept under the carpet” and concealed at all costs, are now coming into the open.
This was demonstrated at the weekend by Derick Borean, group managing director and chief executive of the Altius Group, which provides health-related services and counselling to help organisations protect their most valuable asset: people.
Borean asked the audience, at the TravelManagers’ Annual National Conference in Honolulu, to all raise a hand in the air. Some 320 PTMs, plus representatives from partner suppliers and others, did so.
Borean then asked those present if they knew of someone – family, friends or colleagues – who had suffered psychological issues. If they didn’t know anyone in that category, they could put their hands down.
As far as I could see, every hand remained raised.
Coincidentally, Borean’s talk came shortly after the Australian Health Policy Collaboration (AHPC) at Victoria University, found 2.5 million people in Australia are living with both mental and physical conditions.
The Altius Group provides a range of organisational health and wellbeing psychology solutions and support, “which improve productivity through positive and proactive interventions”.
It employs registered psychologists to give advice, “supporting you to navigate the choppy waters of life”.
The program Altius is providing for TravelManagers gives all PTMs six free sessions a year “thanks to the insight and generosity of TravelManagers,” Borean said.
Derick Borean
“The program is for normal people like you and me and for normal issues,” he added. “Don’t think you need to wait for a crisis.”
Altius provides help 365 days a year.
“Christmas Day is a pretty popular day,” Borean revealed. “We saved someone last year…”
The program begins on 1 September 2018.
“So keep yourself well until then!” Borean said, to laughter from the audience.
Borean said afterwards that only about 20% of consultations with Altius were work-related. Others commonly involved anxiety, sadness or depression. Everything is kept strictly private. If a problem is life threatening, intervention can be arranged.
Mental and physical illnesses sometimes go together. The AHPC report this month found that women are 23% more likely to have both a mental and physical illness than men.
“Improving the physical health of people living with mental health conditions, and conversely, the mental health of people living with physical health conditions, must become a priority to improve the health of all Australians,” the report said.
Written by Peter Needham
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