Mental health & wellbeing

If you need help and advice on dealing with stress, and would like to talk to someone to get some tips on self-management techniques to help, you can call our dedicated Anxiety UK helpline on 0344 848 7921 or email abs@anxietyuk.org.uk.

You do not need to contact our welfare team before accessing this support.

If you feel you’d like to talk to someone regularly about managing stress, anxiety or depression, we can refer you to Anxiety UK who will carry out a wellbeing assessment to determine what type of support would be best for you.

Depending on the outcome, we can then fund up to 8 sessions of one-to-one therapy including counselling, clinical hypnotherapy, acupuncture or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy – delivered by an Anxiety UK approved therapist.

As well as seeking therapeutic support through ABS, we recommend that you see your GP about how you are feeling, if you have not already done so. Your GP can monitor how you are over time and perhaps suggest other interventions if appropriate.

We have made the process as simple as possible as we know it’s not always easy to ask for help.

1. Contact our welfare team by phone, email or through our website.
2. One of our welfare team will respond within 2 working days to find out what support you would like and to check your eligibility – see our eligibility checker.
3. We will email or post you an Anxiety UK referral form to complete and return to us, which we then send on to Anxiety UK.
4. Within a few days, someone from Anxiety UK will contact you directly to carry out a wellbeing assessment with you by phone to find out what you would like support with. If appropriate, they will make a recommendation for a course of therapy based on your needs and tell you about the different types of therapy available. ABS will fund up to 8 sessions.
5. Within 1-2 weeks, you will be contacted by an accredited Anxiety UK therapist and begin your therapy. Sessions can take place via phone, online or face to face.

Whatever you discuss with Anxiety UK is confidential to you and them, it is not shared with ABS.  We only receive a recommendation for the level of support to be provided.