Life insurance benefits - Becca's story

In case you hadn’t heard, several of the UK’s leading life insurance providers now give customers access to free benefits included with your life insurance policy at no extra cost - all you need to do is sign up!

We’ve asked some of the team at Caspian to share their experiences with AIG’s Smart Health app, as we want to raise awareness of the incredible benefits you can now access with your life insurance policy.

We’re kicking this series off by hearing from our amazing Marketing Executive Becca who kindly shared her story about her experience with using Smart Health. Back in December 2021, Becca was struggling with her mental health so decided to seek help from AIG - here is her experience.

Questioning the process

I had so many thoughts running through my head. How can someone actually help me over the phone? How do I know they’re even qualified?

I was initially sceptical, worrying that it would be a waste of my time and was certain that this wouldn’t help my anxiety. So I decided to do a little research first and look into therapy to see how it all worked. Once I understood the process and what I had to give to each session - it changed my world. Although I didn’t realise it at the time, this was a really important step for me to take and looking back, I can honestly say that I felt that weight lifted from my shoulders straight away.

My anxiety

I was struggling with my anxiety, having frequent panic attacks and overall just didn’t feel like myself. Since Covid, I felt quite lost, as I’m sure many others did. I lost my job in the events industry, the industry which I initially wanted to begin a career in, got a new job and couldn't see my family at all due to them living in Wales with different restrictions.

Post Covid I realised I was still struggling and started getting nervous leaving the house, going to a restaurant, and so many other activities that I used to feel fine with. But it felt like everyone else was fine, so I felt like I needed to pretend everything was fine for me too.

However, the small things that I initially thought were just me being a nervous person began turning into bigger issues. For example, I would leave for work and find myself having to run around the house five times just to make sure everything was switched off and checking the door was locked several times. Sometimes I even set off for work and turned around 30 minutes into my journey because I had thoughts like, “what if I get burgled or the house burns down”. After speaking with my workplace and loved ones, I got some advice and realised I had forgotten I had Smart Health included in my policy. After looking into it more, I saw it mentioned free therapy sessions and I knew I had to take advantage of the free service.

The sessions

Before you begin the process you complete a short quiz about how you’re feeling and what your symptoms are. By giving the app all of this information, you can be assigned a therapist best suited to your needs. After that, you choose some dates where you are available for an hour, so you can have a call each week at a time that suits you best. The sessions are capped at four free sessions and then after that, if you want to continue with the sessions you have to pay for each one.

It was a strange experience at first because when I initially thought of therapy, I thought of films like Goodwill Hunting or Sopranos, where you sit on a couch and express your feelings. However, it couldn't have been further from this. Having each appointment over the phone, in the comfort of my own home, and my safe space made me comfortable and the whole experience easier. I was told to make sure I explain what I was doing with my hands and explain my emotions over the phone (because she couldn’t physically see me).

Each session was different. The first one was a huge unload of my feelings and I needed to explain each feeling in depth. I had to mention anything that was on my mind; even the smallest of things that bothered me - she wanted to know. The session allowed me to speak openly and become vulnerable without any judgement.

How they helped

I found the insight and feedback interesting and was given some small tasks to complete over the course of the week to see if I could dive deeper into what and where my issues might have stemmed from. Then during my next appointment, I would discuss my completed tasks and go through the answers with my therapist and she would encourage me to question, “how did it make me feel” or “why did I react this way”.

She got me thinking about why I function this way and how I could improve myself and delved into my answers in a way that no one else ever had and after each session, I began learning about myself more and more.

The small tasks were not difficult and they really got me thinking. For example, I would need to think back to a certain situation, write where I was, what had happened and rate what my stress/anxiety levels were during that time.

We would then reflect back on the situations together on the call to try and understand the severity of the situation and how I could tackle things next time. In total I had four free sessions which were all just under an hour long. They were completely free of charge and in the end she advised me that I didn’t need to continue with the therapy but if I wanted to then the option was there. She said she was confident that with the small tasks I had done throughout our time together that she didn’t think I needed any more sessions.

Reflecting

When I look back I feel so much better than I did and still cannot believe this was a completely free service. I know that therapy works differently for everyone and some people might need more or less sessions than me but I would definitely recommend taking advantage of this app, especially when there are so many other elements to it. Next I am going to try the nutritional side of the app and hopefully get a plan put in place to help me work on my physical health, as well as my mental health.

A bit about Smart Health

AIG’s Smart Health app is a free health and wellbeing app available to AIG’s customers. All you need is your policy number as your password and you have access to their full range of benefits. We heard from Becca about the free mental health and counselling aspect of the app but they also offer several other benefits such as:

• Nutrition and fitness plans, designed by sports coaches and nutrition experts
• Second medical opinions
• Personalised health checks
• 24/7 access to GP consultations

AIG’s Smart Health ensures that with a life insurance policy in place, you are not only helping to protect your loved ones but you and your family can utilise these free benefits throughout the duration of your policy. Therefore, you can benefit from the peace of mind from your policy and all of the above benefits too!