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A five-year collaboration supported by an insurance group and its charitable foundation has transformed how charity Isle Listen supports the island’s youth mental health system.
Since the collaboration began in October 2020 – thanks to support from Zurich on the Isle of Man and the Z Zurich Foundation – it has benefitted school pupils, employees in businesses, and the wider community via outreach programmes.
The core element of the collaboration was a three-year programme which helped more than 3,000 pupils in 31 primary schools and delivered more than 2,900 interactive mental health and wellbeing sessions in primary and secondary schools.
In total, during the five-year collaboration, 98,314 positive interactions have been experienced by young people, families, employees and those in the wider community.
To give an insight into the real-life impact it has had on young people, one of those who benefitted said: ‘My sessions helped me understand why I felt the way I felt, and helped me to understand my feelings.’
Another summed up the emotional, life-changing impact, by saying: ‘Thank you so much for everything you have done, you literally saved my life.’
When it began in 2020, the collaboration aimed to achieve three main goals over three years: Reach out to the entire school and college population over three years; Support employers and deliver community-wide campaigns and resources; Facilitate the expansion of its one-to-one listening service within schools and expand the service further to support potential waiting lists in statutory services.
These goals were designed to complement existing public sector services by signposting young people to agencies if further support was needed, and all of these goals were achieved.
Annabel Ennett, head of services at Isle Listen, said: ‘Without question, working with the Z Zurich Foundation and Zurich in the Isle of Man is Isle Listen’s biggest and most successful corporate collaboration, both in terms of the level of funding and the number of young people it enabled us to reach and impact.
‘It has transformed access to mental health support for young people across the island, and its success was a transitional step towards the recently commissioned Talk initiative, which builds on the service already developed and is a partnership with Manx Care.’
Following the success of the initial three-year programme, collaboration between the pair continued in other forms for another two years.
This included training for Zurich employees to become Mental Health First Aiders (MHFAs), as well as volunteering and fundraising opportunities.
Yvette Scales, human resources business partner for Zurich on the Isle of Man, said: ‘The MHFAs have all made a massive difference to the level of care and support we can provide to our colleagues.
‘Overall, working with Isle Listen has created a greater awareness of mental health and workplace wellbeing, including how employees can spot subtle signs when a colleague may be struggling.’