Helping YOU through your working day and beyond.
Introduction
Across Great Britain, work-related stress accounts for almost half of all working days lost and, in the last 12 months, over half a million working days were lost in due to stress, depression or anxiety, caused or made worse by work (HSE Go Home Healthy 2019).
‘Thriving at Work’, report 2017 by Stevenson and Farmer identified people moving between three mental health groups:
1. Doing really well and feeling good
2. Finding things hard
3. Being ill and possibly having time off from work.
The right way to think about mental health is that we all have it. We all move between the three groups identified by Stevenson and Farmer. People can be in any of these three groups and may fluctuate between any or all at one time. A person with a more serious mental health condition, but with the right help and support can be well, and continue to be productive at work.
Additional research conducted by MIND 2019, indicate certain experiences can have a direct impact on mental health and wellbeing e.g.
- Working in a demanding environment
- Exposed to trauma
- Challenging targets
- Unpredictable workload
- Management pressure
As individuals we also have a responsibility to learn how to look after our own mental health. Taking responsibility to care for self and stay mentally well will help individuals manage the above pressures; furthermore, we can all help individuals identify when they aren’t able to cope, or their coping strategies aren’t working. If this is true from an individual perspective, it also applies collectively in the workplace. We spend on average a third of our adult lives in the workplace with colleagues; we need to notice if another person’s mental health changes.
North Yorkshire County Council have launched the Taking care of YOU Toolkit to help you to start the conversation, because it is an important first step toward preventing work-related stress and actions employers need to take.
Taking care of YOU
This toolkit has been adapted from the ‘Taking care of you’ research (MIND, 2017), and a pilot across the NHS and is a useful tool to bespeak to any working environment. Its aim: helping you through your working day and beyond.
The objective is to raise awareness and understanding of mental health at work and to boost employee perception of how important it is to look after their mental health and has two key components:
- A toolkit of strategies/coping mechanisms to help staff manage the unique challenges of their workplace and the impact of these on their mental health and wellbeing
- A network of staff Ambassadors, improving staff knowledge of workplace wellbeing and signposting them to appropriate support.
The toolkit: resources to help positive habit formation
The toolkit includes a number of resources, including a guide, posters and an introductory presentation to Taking care of YOU, as well as four bite size videos staff can view via the YouTube channel that communicate several strategies to manage pressure and stress before, during and after work.
The overarching ambition is to use the resources to encourage staff to form positive habits either by building on, or alternatively disrupting their existing routines, using cues for strategies that could work in specific moments.
Other practical considerations to try and boost the effectiveness of the toolkit is to include focus on the techniques that are easy to try for the first time, which can be done in a range of locations and which only take a short time (no more than 90 seconds).
Encouraging individuals to take the time for themselves – will help them feel more in control and able to perform at their best. It should not be used as a sole response to an existing problem with work related stress in a department or school.
Designated staff volunteers as Ambassadors
Designated volunteers identified from the staff base to be Ambassadors. The purpose of the wellbeing Ambassadors is to raise awareness, signpost to support, and promote positive mental health and wellbeing in the workplace. They may also be responsible for handing out and putting up resources in their departments and coordinating the launch to raise awareness of the initiative. Ambassadors are also encouraged to suggest ideas for what they would like to do in their individual departments as part of the project, some examples for Health and Adult Services may be to include a Taking care of YOU 4 weekly drop-in session, and using some of the coping techniques at shift handovers and or regular team meetings.
Taking care of YOU domains
The toolkit provides several techniques at relevant stages, each with a different theme designed to get individuals prepared for, and ability to talk about issues which may be causing a deterioration in their mental health and wellbeing, or work related stress, or issues which could have the potential to become future causes if not managed properly.
- Preparation before work
- Importance of taking a break and techniques to perform during break time; make the most of break time; take advantage of the weather and fresh air organise a picnic with friends/colleagues.
- Preparing for home after work and ‘handing over the baton’.
- At home
- Preparing for sleep.
Frequently asked questions
Q: What is the best way to include this into our department and will it solve the issues of work-related stress?
A: This Toolkit can form just one step on your journey towards preventing reduction in an individual’s mental health and wellbeing and recognising work-related stress and bringing in the suitable and sufficient measures needed to address the risks of stress and help your organisation to comply with the law.
Q: How do I start a conversation with my colleague or family if I think something is not right with them and they are struggling?
A: Starting the conversation about stress and mental health is an important first step; Starting a conversation with someone about their mental health needn’t be awkward or difficult; just as you would with physical health a good place to start is simply to ask the individual ‘how they’re doing’? Find a comfortable and quiet place or area to talk, and never make assumptions about how they are feeling; listen to them and watch their body language; focus on the person not their problem. Encourage them to talk and seek help and advice or signpost them to various resources that are available. Always reassure the person and if any actions are decided make sure you agree time to engage again and follow up.
Q: What do I do if I recognise a colleague is showing signs of stress and not coping?
A: Importantly, if you discover that someone is experiencing stress or a mental health problem, they should be encouraged to talk to someone, whether it’s a manager, their trade union representative, GP or an occupational health team member.
Q: If I have a successful conversation with a colleague what do I do next to help them?
A: After a successful conversation you should have started to build a picture of what the potential causes of stress area and help the individual draw up an action plan or encourage the individual to seek advice from other specialist or community resources. You should always set an agreed time and date to host a follow-up conversation to evaluate any actions put in place, and most importantly ask then ‘how are you feeling today’?
Q: What if, as an Ambassador, I identify problems that are generic to my individual department and need attention to correct them before they get worse or make another person feel stressed?
A: You could also involve your colleagues in the conversation by organising focus groups, surveys and working groups to identify solutions which are relevant to the organisation.
Q: Do I need mental health training to become an active Ambassador for the project?
A: You don’t need to be a medical professional or receive any training to become an Ambassador within your department. You do need good generic ‘soft-skills’ e.g. good listening and conversational abilities’; be able to demonstrate empathy. It’s important to remember that it isn’t an individual’s job to diagnose or treat stress, and there are many existing tools, resources and guides for what to do once an individual suspects that they, or a colleague is experiencing stress.
Q: How much time will we have to give to this as we already have busy jobs?
A: As any new initiative or project it is important to review the content of the toolkit and presentations and collectively with management decide on some core objectives for the project, e.g. what do you hope to achieve from adopting the toolkit and how best to incorporate some of the coping techniques. Each department will develop their own objectives and how they decide to use the toolkit collectively at work will be different and driven by their own set of objectives.
Q: What if none of these coping strategies are working for me and I feel really on the edge and or I don’t feel comfortable approaching a member of my team or my manager?
A: You have made the first step in identifying that you are not coping well and if you don’t feel comfortable talking about your problems to a colleague it is important you look for another resource, perhaps through Health Assured Confidential support or your GP in the first instance. It is important for your own psychological and physical health and wellbeing that you get professional support and help.
Q: If I identify that I am stressed out and not coping I am worried that my colleagues will see me in a very different light, or worse I may be given that stereotypical label of being ‘mentally ill’.
A: Mental health and wellbeing is as important as physical health and wellbeing and both go hand in hand; mental health or ill-health does not happen in binary terms, one will affect the other. Therefore it is important you get the support and help you need to feel well and in control of your wellbeing. There has been improved focus on what good mental health and wellbeing should look like in the home and workplace and employers have a duty to take care of you in the workplace and ensure work is not making you ill either physically or psychologically. Most people will be able to empathise rather than criticise as we all have mental health and will fluctuate between feeling good and well and able to cope with life and work, and not so much. Projects like this and the host of other resources are the stepping stones to changing work cultures and stereotypical views and opinion about mental health, and giving individuals strategies and techniques to enable responsibility and autonomy for their own mental health and wellbeing.
Helplines:
Samaritans Free 24 hour confidential helpline 116 123 https://www.samaritans.org
MIND Support helpline 0300 123 3393
Online resources
Videos:
Taking care of you
Mental health at work
Your first stop for better mental health at work
MIND: free resources
HSE: work-related stress resources
HSE's Management Standards to prevent work-related stress
What work-related stress is and how to tackle it
