What HR professionals should know about managing depression

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have recently published the first update on the treatment of depression for over 10 years.

Depression is now divided into “less severe” and “more severe” categories.  You may expect to see these terms used more often.  “More severe” encompasses what was previously called moderate and severe depression.

NICE says that stepped care, starting with the least intrusive and least resource intensive treatments, should be offered first.  In “more severe” cases, matched care may be offered, when different treatments are used at the same time.

NICE stresses that Talk Therapy should be offered and discussed with the patient first before medication is considered for both less and more severe cases.  Types of talking therapy include;

                Guided self-help

Group work; cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), behavioural activation (BA), exercise groups, mindfulness/meditation groups

                Individual CBT, BA, psychodynamic psychotherapy and counselling.

As HR professionals will be well aware, access to these evidence-based talking therapies is becoming increasingly slower and erratic in quality.  Employees often do not know where to find appropriate talking therapies and do not know which type might help them best.

What’s to be done?

Consider using Occupational Health professionals to assess your employee’s condition, guide them to the most appropriate type of therapy and reassess their condition after a suitable interval.  Delays in treatment tend to lead to the condition worsening and absences to be longer than they might otherwise be.