I thought I'd give Employment Plus a ring to see what training their staff are supposed to have (officially speaking) in terms of mental health. Their contact number is on their website - as is an advert for a Job Life Coach (their term for Work Programme advisers). There is no mention of mental health expertise or training so I decide to ring them to ask about that specifically. This is their response (once again subject to amusing pitch manipulation - bear in mind the volume isn't great):
Curious they mention services unknown to me. Tellingly these include a health adviser that comes to the centre one could speak to. I suppose their response would be that such people are only available in larger centres (if at all). If that's true then surely the adviser could at least have mentioned this to me, could have perhaps arranged for me to see them - or something. Nope, no mention at all; just told that, in liue of bringin g a support worker, I have no problems because I'm on JSA (which of course = full health happy times).
Now I can't really take this as gospel; the person I spoke to did make it clear she isn't a Job Life Coach herself, so she could be mistaken. To give her the benefit of the doubt this then is not something she made up, but could be something that once existed and now no longer does and, not being a JLC, she wouldn't know that. That said, why not make sure you have such people in place? Did you not think you'd be dealing with people that have particular needs, or do you just think God would help them?
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