Brought to you by

CABA provides lifelong support for past and present ICAEW members.

Save content
Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile.

Work, unemployment, relationship and health worries prompt accountants to seek help from new CABA service

30th Jan 2013
Brought to you by

CABA provides lifelong support for past and present ICAEW members.

Save content
Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile.

Worries over work, unemployment, relationships and health have prompted accountants to seek help with anxiety and stress from Chartered Accountants’ Benevolent Association in the last 12 months.

A new service called “Beating the Blues” was launched by the charity in January 2012 and 31 people have now been referred for help. Specific problems cited have included redundancy, bullying at work, excessive workload, marriage breakdown, deteriorating health, the difficulties of being a single parent and retirement.

Natalie Worth, Head of Operations and Finance at CABA, explained: “The problems that are causing accountants to seek support for anxiety and stress issues are, we are finding, varied and each case has its own unique aspects. Some are age-old issues like health and relationship breakdowns but others are very much rooted in the present such as redundancy and the problems of achieving a reasonable work-life balance at a time when your line manager might be making excessive demands.

“’Beating the Blues’ was launched to meet the rising number of anxiety and stress problems that were being brought to us and the initial signs are that many of those referred are making progress although, for some, it is clearly a long term issue.”

The initiative is designed to enable those affected to understand anxiety and stress, change negative thought patterns and provide them with ways to better manage the issue. It is approved by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, used widely by the NHS, and is free of charge to chartered accountants and their families through CABA. The whole programme is carried out online with the support of specialist advisors and consists of eight weekly sessions that each last for about 50 minutes.

Natalie continued: “Anxiety and stress reportedly affects something like one in five people during their lifetimes and accountants are just as prone to being affected as anyone else. However, there are steps that can be taken to tackle the problem and ‘Beating the Blues’ allows us to provide confidential and immediate help that enables sufferers to learn to develop effective coping mechanisms for now and for the future.”

Read more about Beating the Blues.

Tags: