Mental health-related absences cost UK businesses around £45 billion annually. The question is no longer whether employers should invest in mental health support — it is how to do it effectively.
The Scale of the Problem
Mental health-related absences cost UK businesses approximately £45 billion annually, according to research by Deloitte. That figure encompasses lost productivity, staff turnover, presenteeism — the phenomenon of employees attending work while mentally unwell — and the direct costs of recruitment and training when staff leave. It is a number that has been cited in boardrooms and HR departments across the country, yet the organisational response has often remained superficial: a helpline number in the staff handbook, a Mental Health Awareness Week email, a yoga class.
The gap between the scale of the problem and the quality of the response is significant. And it is narrowing only slowly.
Why the Traditional EAP Model Is No Longer Enough
Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) have been the default corporate response to mental health for decades. They offer employees access to a small number of counselling sessions — typically six to eight — through a third-party provider. For mild, situational difficulties, they can be effective. But for employees experiencing moderate to severe mental health conditions, addiction, burnout, or complex trauma, six sessions of telephone counselling is not a treatment. It is a holding measure.
The clinical reality is that many of the employees most in need of support are precisely those for whom an EAP is insufficient. A senior executive experiencing a depressive episode that has been building for two years does not need six sessions. A lawyer whose alcohol use has escalated to the point of affecting their work does not need a helpline. These individuals need access to proper clinical assessment, consultant-led care, and — in some cases — a structured treatment programme.
The ROI Case Is Now Compelling
Deloitte’s research found that for every £1 spent on employee mental health, employers see an average return of £5.30. That figure is not a projection or a model — it is a measured outcome from organisations that have made meaningful, sustained investments in mental health support. The returns come from reduced absenteeism, lower staff turnover, improved productivity, and a reduction in the costs associated with managing performance issues that are, at root, mental health issues.
For organisations that have historically viewed mental health investment as a cost rather than a return, this evidence base is now difficult to ignore. The question has shifted from “should we invest?” to “how do we invest effectively?”
What Effective Corporate Mental Health Support Looks Like
Effective corporate mental health support operates at three levels simultaneously.
Prevention addresses the organisational conditions that create mental health risk: excessive workload, poor management, lack of autonomy, job insecurity, and the erosion of work-life boundaries. This requires honest organisational self-assessment, not just wellbeing programmes. A mindfulness app does not address a culture of 70-hour weeks.
Early intervention provides employees with rapid access to clinical assessment when difficulties emerge, before they escalate. This means access to a psychiatrist or psychologist within days, not months. It means a clear pathway from first concern to clinical support, without the employee having to navigate a complex referral system alone.
Acute and specialist support provides access to intensive treatment — outpatient programmes, day patient care, or residential treatment — for employees whose needs exceed what can be managed in a weekly therapy session. This is where the Portobello/PROMIS Group’s continuum of care becomes particularly relevant: the ability to step an employee from outpatient support into a day programme, or from a day programme into residential care, and back again, without changing clinical team or losing continuity of care.
The Case for a Clinical Partner, Not Just a Provider
Many organisations have multiple mental health providers — an EAP here, a digital wellbeing platform there, a private medical insurance policy that covers some psychiatric care. The result is fragmentation: employees fall between services, clinical information is not shared, and the organisation has no coherent picture of the mental health of its workforce.
A more effective model is to work with a single clinical partner that can provide the full spectrum of support — from initial assessment through to specialist treatment and back to work — with a consistent clinical team and a clear pathway at every stage. That is the model the Portobello/PROMIS Group has developed, and it is the model we believe represents the future of corporate mental health support.
What to Ask Your Current Provider
If you are reviewing your organisation’s mental health provision, these are the questions worth asking: What happens when an employee needs more than six sessions? What is the pathway to psychiatric assessment? How quickly can an employee access a consultant? What happens if they need residential treatment? Who coordinates their care across different services? What data do you receive about outcomes?
If the answers are unclear, or if the pathway beyond the EAP is undefined, that is a significant gap in your provision — and a significant risk to your organisation and your people.