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Looking after your mental health at work
Mental wellbeing and employment
Objectives for the workshop
To provide you with some considerations around disclosing a mental health condition at work
To provide you with more of an understanding around the importance of tackling the root cause
To identify areas where you can get support from
To disclose or not to disclose? That is the question
You’re in a job and your mental health starts to suffer. You’re faced with a very difficult decision; Do I tell my line manager or keep it to myself?
If you tell your manager then they may be able to offer support and/or reasonable adjustments.
Disclosure Non - Disclosure
Disclosure continued…
What is your relationship with your manager like? Are they
approachable and do you have a good rapport with them?
What’s the working environment like? Is it a place where
people are treated with respect and supported if feeling
a little under the weather?
Has anybody else been affected by mental health problems
and if so what has their experience been like?
Wearing a mask
Many people experiencing mental health problems report ‘wearing a mask’ at work. This is where they will smile and appear happy in front of their peers. Yet they will experience emotional difficulties when in private. Is this something that sounds familiar?
Work can be good for your mental health. But it’s important to be in the right frame of mind whilst you're there. So make sure you address the cause and get the right support.
Remember…problems at work can increase your emotional unrest
Identifying and tackling the cause
It’s important to find what things are causing you to feel stressed and look at tackling the root cause. What do you feel could cause you to feel stressed both at home and at work?
FinancesHealth
Housing problems
RelationshipsLack of support
Difficult targets
Not fitting in with colleagues
Unsure of role
At home At work
Causes of stress at work
So how do we get from this… To this?...
Stress Calm
…by addressing the root cause
Tackling the root cause
Have you heard of the phrase ‘sticking a plaster on it’?
This is when we find a temporary solution to a problem rather than addressing the cause.
Imagine wrapping a cloth around a leaking pipe in your home.It doesn’t fix the leak and doesn’t stop the water from seepingout.
It’s no different when it comes to our wellbeing
What we need to do is address what is the real cause of our distress and identify what we can do to make things better and who can help us.
‘The cause’
Getting the right support
What areas of support do you think are available to you? Here are just a few:
FamilyFriends
Manager
Colleagues
Professional organisations
Be proud of small steps!!!
One of the ways we can address the things that are causing us unrest is by setting small targets and not trying to do everything at once. It can also help
to break these down into work and personal targets
Work targets –You can always sit down with your manager
and discuss how you could make things more manageable.
The worst thing you can do is to stay quiet and struggle.
Personal targets – This relates to the targets you set
yourself, at work or at home, and can be little things you
achieve which make you feel good abut yourself. If things
have been particularly difficult for you it may be something
as small as going to work or talking to your peers.
The right support at work
Manager support – Quite often managers
would prefer you spoke to them to see how
they can support. This is a better alternative
to you continuing as you are and it affecting
your work
Peer support – Sometimes it’s also good to be
able to speak with colleagues. After all they will
be doing a similar job to you. Find out how they
handle the pressure and organise their workload.
You may be able to pick up some useful tips
Let’s revisit our objectives
To provide you with some considerations around disclosing a mental health condition at work
To provide you with more of an understanding around the importance of tackling the root cause
To identify areas where you can get support from
Useful resources
http://www.mentalhealthforum.net/
http://www.llttf.com
http://www.nsun.org.uk/
www.mind.org.uk
http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/your-organisation/support-workplace