Island offers retreat for high-flyers who crack up (From Gazette)

Island offers retreat for high-flyers who crack up

10:00pm Tuesday 4th August 2009

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IT is no secret that businesses are struggling to make ends meet to get through the recession. But the consequences of banks nearly collapsing and difficult trading conditions are not just the end of businesses.

Workers who are on the front line, bearing the brunt of management decisions and sometimes taking the blame, can be left stressed and depressed.

One Essex business is picking up the pieces.

The Causeway Retreat is on Osea Island, a 400-acre bird sanctuary and site of special scientific interest, off the coast at Heybridge, where it offers a haven and treatment centre – for those who can afford it – to get away from it all and work through their problems.

Currently 60 per cent of patients are businesspeople, with 30 per cent from Essex and commuting to London to work.

“The rise in demand for our services coincided with the gradual decline of the UK economy,” explained Brendan Quinn, managing director of the centre. “In some cases, they are suicidal.”

Needless to say the Causeway Retreat is doing quite well for itself. With clients, mostly high-flying City execs, paying anything between £5,000 and £10,000 for a week’s stay, it is clear this is one business that is not suffering from the negative impact of the recession.

Business is booming but Mr Quinn, a qualified psychiatric nurse, stressed clients are not there for a holiday.

They are forced to tackle their problems head on, so when they leave – sometimes weeks later – they are better equipped to cope with what work and life throws at them.

Each client has a programme of treatment but all follow a fundamental routine. They must be out of bed by 8am and must attend group and one-to-one therapy sessions, must do some physical exercise, enjoy some complementary therapies, meditation and a reflective group in the evening.

He said: “There are 22 properties on the island, and we treat no more than 15 people at any one time and our clients like that – it’s not a psychiatric asylum that takes in hundreds of people. We don’t bid for NHS contracts. The clients also like the fact they get anonymity.”

Anonymity is pretty much guaranteed on the island, as it is not a place the general public will venture on to out of choice. The track on and off the island can only be used four hours a day during low tide, and some of the wealthier clients choose to arrive by helicopter – a service the centre arranges for them.

Over the six years the centre has been open – and in the 15 years Mr Quinn has been a mental health nurse – he revealed he had seen a “major increase” in women needing help for alcohol addiction and workplace stress.

“I wouldn’t say women are weaker, but we see a lot of women juggling motherhood with their careers, or post- natal depression. Women are worried they have given ten years to a career but their biological clock is ticking and they have no partner. I am talking severe alcohol abuse – women drinking two bottles of wine a night.”

The Causeway Retreat started off looking after just one or two people in the cottages on the island. Opening it up to a fully-fledged treatment centre “happened by accident”, said Mr Quinn. Its clients were originally wealthy businesspeople from abroad, but as word spread, more UK workers sought it out and now the average stay for clients is about four weeks.

Mr Quinn said: “There’s nothing like this in the world. It’s an exciting industry for Essex. We are hoping the future will be positive, but we want to keep it very small, intimate and intensive.”

The centre does not take on NHS contracts and the majority of people pay for their stay through their company health insurance, he said.

But Mr Quinn had strong words for companies which pile the pressure on.

“You can put workload on people but you have to strike a balance. You have to be aware not everyone can handle the pressure businesses might expect. They have to look after the mental wellbeing of employees,” he said.

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