Real support for the people who care

More than almost any other industry. Health care and social assistance accounts for 19.9% of all serious workers' compensation claims in Australia, the highest of any industry. The mental health toll is rising fast. Mental health conditions now make up 12% of all serious workers' compensation claims nationally, up 14.7% in a single year and 161% over the past decade. In residential aged care, 56% of workers reported burnout at elevated levels. Chances are some of your team are quietly doing it tough right now, and an EAP gives them a simple, private way to get help before it turns into a claim or a resignation.

An Employee Assistance Program gives your staff free, professional counselling for whatever is weighing on them, whether that is stress, burnout, exposure to trauma, sleep, relationships, grief or money worries. With Talked, your people book a session with a qualified Australian psychologist or counsellor and talk by video, phone or message, around shift work and clinical hours. Getting in early matters. A serious mental health claim keeps a worker off the job for a median of 35.7 weeks, almost five times longer than the median across all serious claims at 7.4 weeks. Support that lands early keeps your clinicians safe, at work and well, and keeps those long, costly absences off your books.

Confidentiality is what makes people feel safe enough to reach out, so it is built into everything. What a staff member discusses with their counsellor stays between them and the clinician. As the employer you never see who booked a session or what was raised, only anonymous, aggregate usage and wellbeing data. The single exception is a serious risk to someone's safety, which clinicians are legally required to act on. That privacy is exactly why your people will use the service, and your reporting still gives you the insight you need to manage risk across your workforce.

It is one of the clearest reasons healthcare employers invest. More than half of Australian health and aged care workers, 54%, said they considered leaving their profession, following elevated rates of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress. Replacing experienced clinicians is slow and expensive, and every departure adds load to the team left behind. Giving people real, high quality support signals that you take their wellbeing seriously, and it helps you hold on to the staff you have worked hard to recruit. You will see engagement in your reporting, so you can show leadership where it is helping.

The cost of doing nothing is high. The median compensation paid for a serious mental health claim was $67,400, more than four times the median across all serious claims, and that is before you count overtime, agency backfill, lost productivity and the time it takes to recruit a replacement. An EAP works by catching pressure early, before it becomes a long absence or a claim. With Talked you get de-identified reporting on utilisation and wellbeing, so you can see the program working and put real numbers in front of your board.

Difficult events are part of healthcare, from a patient death to an aggressive incident or a traumatic case, and they leave a mark long after the shift ends. Talked provides rapid critical incident support with trauma-trained clinicians who can be there for affected staff quickly, on site or remotely. Your leaders get clear guidance through the days that follow, plus a confidential summary and recommended next steps, so your team is looked after and your duty of care is covered.

You choose the plan, and Talked tailors the number of sessions to suit your workforce and budget. Most plans include a set number of free sessions per staff member each year, which is enough to work through most issues. If someone needs longer-term or more specialised support, their counsellor helps them find the right next step. Talk to us and we will size a plan to your organisation and the kind of clinical work your people do.