NHS Lanarkshire has provided a counselling service through ‘Therapeutic Counselling’ for many years in order to support the wellbeing of staff. This has been a well-used resource and particularly valuable over the last two challenging years. The provision of the service is via an independent company – separate to NHS – free of charge and completely confidential. The contract with the current provider ‘Time for Talking’ has come to an end. Following a competitive formal tender process, the new provider of counselling services for NHS Lanarkshire staff will be ‘The Talking Rooms’.
The Talking Rooms – based in the West of Scotland – was founded in 2018 and provides one-to-one counselling and other services in further education colleges and public sector organisations with a client-base across Scotland.
The new counselling service from The Talking Rooms will take effect from today (Monday 11 April). Over the next few weeks and months, further communications will be issued via the weekly staff briefing and The Pulse to ensure that details of the new service are widely publicised.
Annette Shorts, lead occupational health advisor, Salus occupational health, safety and return to work services, said: “The Talking Rooms aims to help and support staff and to empower them to deal with life’s inevitable difficulties by providing access to confidential counselling.
“Accessing counselling via The Talking Rooms can offer a safe and confidential space to explore a challenge or life difficulty, which could be anything from grief, to feeling stressed or worried or experiencing low mood. Staff can access counselling on days and times that suit their needs. This can be carried out by telephone, video link or even face-to-face at a location that suits the individual.
“The service is totally confidential and staff can self-refer directly for counselling in the safe knowledge that no personal or private information is shared with anyone else”.
The Talking Rooms are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. To contact The Talking Rooms, please telephone 0800 138 9150 or complete an online referral form which can be found at: https://www.thetalkingrooms.com/self-referral/
Please note that existing clients of Time for Talking will be seen through to the completion of their sessions to ensure that there is no gap in service provision.
