OREANDA-NEWS. SSE has teamed up with the Scottish Mental Health Research Network (SMHRN) at The University of Edinburgh to develop a bespoke mental health awareness training programme for its customer service staff.

Mental health conditions are common; around one in four people will experience a mental health problem each year. (according to the Mental Health Foundation).

SSE understands mental illness can affect anyone and its customer services team therefore need to be equipped to help those customers who might have different needs.

Before developing the training programme, The University of Edinburgh’s team of mental health research experts spent one year conducting in-depth research on behalf of SSE. This involved speaking with people that suffer from mental health conditions, including SSE customers, to understand what they need and want from their energy supplier.

During this period the researchers also spent time shadowing SSE’s customer service advisors and at dedicated staff forums to understand advisors’ roles and to discuss working examples and common issues.
Following this, the researchers developed a custom-made training programme for specialised advisors working with vulnerable customers and a booklet for all customer service staff, detailing how to identify and best support vulnerable customers.

The programme SMHRN has developed aims to provide basic information on mental health conditions to aid employee awareness and understanding. It also offers SSE’s specialist teams the training and skills to help communicate more effectively with customers on an individual basis.

 

The training programme to support vulnerable customers builds on SSE’s commitment to attaining the British Standard for Inclusive Service Provision, the gold standard when it comes to providing a flexible service capable of recognising and catering for vulnerability in all its forms.

It also complements a ground-breaking partnership between SSE and dementia experts at Stirling University who launched a new book to help those living with the condition.

SSE and SMHRN will continue the work to ensure both the training and content adapts to the changing needs of its customers.