Ending Therapy

What is in this policy?

This policy describes how we ensure a smooth ending to therapy and promote sustained progress after clients have completed their therapy on Unmind Talk. It includes how we signpost clients towards other services for specialised support, or to continue beyond their allocated session provision. 

This policy is reviewed quarterly. If you have a question about this policy or want to share feedback, please get in touch with us here. 

Principles

We believe in the right care at the right time. Therefore we want to ensure we have the best aftercare in place for anyone ending their journey with Unmind Talk. We recognise that therapy is often just the beginning, and gains are made long after sessions finish. 

Ending

We recognise that the ending of a therapeutic relationship needs to be approached thoughtfully. Your approach to ending might vary depending on the therapeutic model you’re using but we encourage you to do the following: 

• Plan the ending in advance with the client, so it doesn’t come as a surprise. 
• If you and the client agree to extend the number of sessions, do this several weeks in advance of the initial end date. 
• Help the client reflect on what they’ve learned from therapy and make plans for how they’ll continue to build on their gains once they leave therapy. 
• If there is any clinical risk, or if the client is vulnerable, ensure they have enough support in place before you discharge them. Please refer to our policy on Risk and Safeguarding for guidance. 

Please notify us here to tell us when you have ended sessions with a client. 

Unplanned endings

If a client drops out of therapy with no explanation, we encourage you to follow up with them to offer them the option of resuming. If you don’t hear back from them, we request that you send a follow up message signposting them to any resources that might be helpful to them. Please also contact us here to let us know that you have ended therapy. The exception to this is in the case of any risk, in which case we ask you to refer to the policy on Risk and Safeguarding. 

Referral to external services

If you believe a client needs more intervention beyond what you can offer, we encourage you to refer or signpost them to services that can help them. We encourage you to familiarise yourself with what’s available in the locale(s) in which you see clients, and the routes to access. We also encourage you to refer a client back to their doctor, or other healthcare provider, for further support when necessary. 

Referral to internal services 

As clients are employees of corporate organisations, some of them will have access to further support through their employer, e.g. occupational health services. Where this is the case, you may wish to help the client explore what’s available within their organisation and support them to seek access.

Accessing more sessions

When a client finishes therapy via Unmind Talk (uses their session allocation), they are welcome to continue seeing their therapist as a private, self-funded client. It is up to the client and therapist to decide whether they wish to continue to use the Unmind Talk platform to schedule appointments, or to do this elsewhere. If you would like to use Unmind Talk to see your private clients, simply add them as private clients following these steps, and continue to use the platform as you did previously. 

If a client ends their employment

As clients’ sessions are funded by their employer, when a client terminates their employment contract, there will need to be some consideration of the future of sessions. We anticipate that different organisations will have different provisions (e.g. some may continue to fund sessions for a set time period after the employee leaves the organisation), therefore we encourage you to discuss this with the client. If the client’s employer cannot continue to fund sessions, you may wish to discuss whether they would like to continue sessions with you as a private client. 

Continued use of the Unmind app

Clients are encouraged to continue to use Unmind's personal app to access tools and resources during therapy and beyond. Clients will continue to have access to the Unmind platform as long as they remain employees of their organisation. Note that we offer a 30-day grace period of access if they leave their organisation.

If you have any questions, you can get in touch with us here.