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Counselling is being offered to every jobless resident of a borough.
Ealing Primary Care Trust has set up the scheme to help 64,000 people who are out of work. It hopes that free cooking lessons, exercise classes and cognitive behavioural therapy can boost self-esteem and help get participants off benefits.
Those with depression will be able to see a counsellor without going through their doctor. Of more than 12,000 people on incapacity benefit in Ealing, 5,000 are thought to have mental health problems.
A spokeswoman for the Primary Care Trust's scheme, which will cost £150,000, said: "The services are ambitious. Trained staff will also go into the workplace with employees who are worried about returning."
Reader views (2)
I would have thought that getting a job would improve the confidence of the jobless far more.
- George, London, 13/11/2009 15:56
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I would have thought that an initiative to realistically increase in Londons employment opportunities for the middle aged would be a better boost to the confidence of the unemployed
- Jack, London, 13/11/2009 12:34
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