It was the Covid lockdowns and the growing pressures on New Zealanders’ financial health that led to a unique offer of three free mental wellness sessions a year from Kiwi health insurer UniMed.
Chief Executive Louise Zacest saw it first-hand during the lockdowns and realised UniMed members didn’t have access to the type of support the new normal required.
Louise Zacest, Chief Executive UniMed / Photo Supplied.
“I was in Auckland for the first two lockdowns and was engaging with people there who were struggling with the impact on their lives,” she says. “We knew UniMed had to respond really quickly to bring needed mental wellbeing services to our members, and given the value members saw, then decided to provide it as a continuous service beyond that point in time.”
“The lockdowns, and everything that followed, created a level of stress and pressure for people and now people are recovering from extreme weather events and facing challenging financial times. That all flows through.”
UniMed provides workplace health insurance and other services. They began partnering with Clearhead in 2021 to provide mental health and wellbeing services for members with three free sessions available each year.
“We wanted to ensure our members have access to mental wellbeing support whenever they need it,” Zacest says. “We set up the new service in about two weeks. We had had prior discussion with Clearhead, so we went to them and said ‘this is what we want to do, how can we bring something to our people immediately?’”
The Clearhead sessions are aimed at helping people reduce stress, handle anxiety, manage moods and sleep better, and are available online or in-person. “It’s a service that needed to be available, virtually and in-person. Obviously virtual was important at that point in time,” says Zacest, referring to the nationwide and Auckland-specific lockdowns.
Mental health is an ongoing challenge in New Zealand as well as globally, and the national health system is struggling to keep up with demand. Many are finding themselves falling between the cracks or waiting for months to access services. One in three New Zealanders are affected by mental health at least once in their lifetime.
From an economic point of view, the crisis in mental health also means billions of dollars lost in productivity. Almost two-thirds of New Zealand organisations report increased stress from employees.
“This is about all of us,” she says. “We all have times in our lives when we need a bit of support, when we’re feeling a bit down or stressed and anxious.”
Clearhead has over 500 therapists to choose from, including dedicated Māori and Pasifika professionals, and an appointment can usually be secured within 24 hours. “We had a person who booked a session on Saturday at 11pm and connected with someone on Sunday afternoon,” Zacest says. “That ability to be responsive if people have a need is really important to us.”
The mental health services are completely confidential; even employers don’t know when employees access them. Members can also opt to receive support from a provider of their choice and UniMed will reimburse them. “We’ve had emails and notes from people saying it made a really big difference for them,” Zacest says.
UniMed is proud to count Omexom as one of their clients across construction, engineering and 24-7 maintenance in the energy sector. / Photo Supplied.UniMed’s origins demonstrate how and why the company moved so quickly to provide mental health support. In 1978, a bunch of Kiwi workers got together and said: How do we help people like us access healthcare? That important question led to the creation of UniMed, a not-for-profit society which now supports over 100,000 New Zealanders with better access to health and wellbeing care.
“That’s where our origins are,” says Zacest, “And we still have a strong tie to that question, how can we help people have support?” UniMed is now a leader in workplace health insurance and works with some of the biggest businesses in New Zealand.
The company is celebrating its 45th anniversary this year and Zacest says they are continuing to focus on their chief purpose of keeping working New Zealanders in lifelong good health. As a workplace health insurer, the employer pays for the health insurance.
“Our focus on being a workplace insurer is that a whole lot of people, who couldn’t afford it if they had to pay for it themselves, can now access health insurance,” she says. “This is something that provides people with that extra bit of peace of mind knowing they can access health and wellness services if and when they need.”
UniMed takes care of the people who take care of the country and the free mental wellbeing services to all members also helps members realise their own goals when it comes to work and wellness across all aspects of their lives.
For more information: www.unimed.co.nz
