Mental Health Awareness Week
It’s highly likely employees who are currently quarantined, working from home or furloughed are experiencing a wide range of symptoms of mental health disorders, including low mood, poor sleep, stress, anxiety, anger, irritability, emotional exhaustion, depression and post-traumatic stress symptoms.
And for some of your employees, this may be the first time they’ve experienced these symptoms. For example, the toll on a parent’s mental health may be exacerbated in lockdown as they deal with home-schooling children whilst trying to maintain job performance. For those living alone or isolated from loved ones, there may be higher risks of alcohol abuse, self-medication and long-lasting “avoidance” behaviour.
When lockdown ends, your employees may find it difficult to reintegrate and reconnect with colleagues, avoiding contact and simply not showing up for work. The opposite may also be true, when they ‘burn the candle at both ends’ and find it difficult to get up in the morning or focus on work when they arrive.
So as we head towards Mental Health Awareness Week (18th - 24th May 2020), I wonder whether the many acts of kindness and the swell of gratitude towards services previously taken for granted will still be evident. Will there be long-lasting change in how we treat each other in the workplace?
How you can be kind to yourself and others?
Looking after your own mental health
Extending kindness to others should not be at your expense – that’s a sacrifice you cannot afford. The expression “you can’t pour from an empty cup” has never been more significant - if you don’t take care of your own mental health and well-being, your ability to assist others with their mental health is severely limited. Ask yourself these questions to assess your own state of mental health and resilience:
Am I getting enough sleep or taking time to rest when I’m tired? Or do you find it difficult to switch off from work?
Am I exercising regularly, being active every day? Or sitting at your desk or on the sofa for long periods?
Am I staying in touch with friends and family? Or finding there just aren’t enough hours in the day?
Make it a priority to be kind to yourself, take care of yourself – remember, you’re a human being not a human doing. Reflect on what’s important to you, discover who you are and what you enjoy.
Looking after the mental health and resilience of your team
There are three key elements to addressing mental health in the workplace:
understanding the sources
assessing the impact
providing assistance
In the current lockdown environment, the sources of stress have clearly increased and your ability to identify and address issues within your team may be diminished, despite increased communication and better use of online meeting technology.
As we head out of lockdown, we hope our Government and business leaders recognise the next wave of health care requirements will shift to mental health services. You can put plans in place to address these areas – NOW. Plan how to build a mentally fit workforce using resilience tools and techniques your employees can practically use to help themselves. With these tools, they can stay mentally fit and build or top up their resilience before heading back to work, whenever that may be.
Check out Mind’s 5 ways to wellbeing or MHFA England’s Take 10 Together.
Resilience enables us to move past perceived failures and to acknowledge the situation, learn from our mistakes, and then move forward.
You can help develop your team’s resilience in several ways. First, as above, encourage them to take care to exercise regularly and get enough sleep, so that they can handle stress more easily. The stronger they feel physically and emotionally, the easier it is for them to overcome challenges.
Cultivate a focus on thinking positively, seeing mistakes as learning opportunities and continuous improvement. Strengthen relationships with colleagues and friends, so there’s a support network they can fall back on. You’re probably at the start of a new financial year, setting objectives as part of your performance management practices, so help employees create specific and achievable personal goals that match their values, and work towards building their self-confidence so they can achieve milestones in the months ahead.
Foster a growth mindset, a continued desire to learn, to improve. Give support and feedback, encouraging them to open their minds to new experiences, learning from others and any setbacks.
In summary, no matter what your role is in an organisation, there is no discrimination to the impact of the lockdown. Even the most senior staff have found it incredibly challenging to adapt to the current situation. Managing emotions has intensified, and anxiety is manifesting itself more – it is unsurprising we’re less equipped to deal with this than we might expect.
It’s important to recognise that mental health affects us all. And in different ways. Diagnosed mental health conditions are wide and varied but looking after your own mental health and resilience will ensure you are able to adapt your behavioural responses appropriately, remaining professional whilst offering support to others.
If your own mental health needs some ‘first aid’, then seek assistance - for you or your teams. This might be from a colleague, mentor or a trained professional.
If you’re interested in learning more about developing resilience, raising awareness of mental health or MHFA training, why not book onto one of our courses?