Prevail
CMD, presenteeism
Prevail is a multi-faceted programme aimed at reducing sickness absence and presenteeism due to CMDs. It involves two psychological interventions, both provided via group based intervention programmes. The first (Prevail Staff Intervention) is for all employees within the organization and its aims are to improve knowledge about mental health, including knowledge of best-practice in low intensity psychological inventions and the theoretical premises underpinning such interventions. It also aims to reduce stigma related to mental health issues, and in particular self-stigma [The second intervention (Prevail Managers Intervention) is aimed at the managerial level within the workplace and is designed to teach managers a formulation-based approach to evaluation and intervention. Formulation refers to a process of providing an explanation for the presenting problem and differs from a “diagnosis” which is more categorical and refers to identification and labelling of the actual CMD rather than an understanding of the causes, or trigger-factors, of the CMD for the individual. The focus here is on the understanding of the problem for the person, active problem-solving, and co-production (where both the employer and the employee share the responsibility to plan and deliver the intervention within the work-place and both make a contribution and commitment to this plan [Prevail was therefore devised as an intervention to improve the mental wellbeing of all employees via education in mental health literacy (including behaviours that improve mental wellbeing), low-level psychological interventions for less severe problems, and encouragement of help-seeking behaviours by destigmatising mental health issues. As such it was not specifically designed for this particular work setting (e.g., DVLA) but as a general programme of prevention/intervention to improve mental wellbeing, predicated upon established evidence-based practice, that could be used in many employment settings. However, in delivering the programme in this employment setting, we used specific examples related to the employer (using videos and case studies of their staff and work environment) so as to emphasise and illustrate the learning points and relevance to the specific workforce.