Posted By Kate Graham Not sure what you mean by a stress helpline? A couple of companies I have worked for have subscribed to a service which offers employees advice and counselling on a whole range of issues (legal, financial, consumer advice etc as well as counselling for stress). This helps to reduce the stigma of it being seen as being for people with emotional problems. A course of face to face counselling sessions as well as telephone counselling is available (also free). Is this what you are thinking of or something specific to stress and available by phone only? Is it better than a GP - of course it is, if you want to give staff an opportunity to resolve their problems rather than just be signed off sick!

Posted By J Harrison There are quite a few providers. Try a WWW search on "employee assistance programmes". Some providers specialise in certain areas such as providing health advice (a bit like NHS direct) or are really a "whistleblowing" line. However, many are general telephone counselling services which cover stress as well as other concerns (especially money & debt) As to getting value from them - yes, we believe we do. Many GPs don't have the time to be a "counsellor" and would advise the patient to go to a counselling service anyway. As a previous poster says, we want to get in and help solve problems before they reach that point. Finally - they are not that expensive in our experience. We do have some "face-to-face" welfare services (which are much more expensive) but that is not practical for a lot of our workforce (spread in small groups around the UK and abroad.)

Posted By Richard Beevers Further to everything so far. Does anyone have data on employee uptake of these schemes? My finance manager is wanting to close out scheme down as it's only had 13 calls in the past 6 months. Would this be (un)usual?? Al.