WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY
Wednesday October 6th, 2021
Did you know World Mental Day is October 10th?
The World Health Organisation recognises World Mental Health Day on the 10th of October each year. The overall objective of World Mental Health Day is to raise awareness of mental health issues around the world and to mobilise efforts in support of mental health.
After over a year of living through the pandemic and the various adjustments it involved, it is to be expected that the mental health of your employees was impacted. Therefore, it is more important than ever before to be aware of mental health amongst your team.
MENTAL HEALTH AND YOUR TEAM
Poor mental health impacts your business as much as poor physical health does. After months of extreme stress, anxiety, and uncertainty it is essential that you support your team in the workplace and throughout any transition periods as they return to the office.
There are many ways in which COVID-19 will have impacted the mental health of your employees, even for those who weren’t physically impacted by the virus. The pandemic has changed almost every aspect of our lives and of course that has a knock-on effect on our collective mental health. Mental health is extremely important and connected to physical health. If your employee’s mental health is suffering, it can manifest in their physical health. Therefore it is important to deal with any issues as soon as possible.
HOW TO SUPPORT YOUR TEAM
There are many ways in which you can support your team and their mental health. Here are just a few recommendations:
- Encourage care of physical health
- You can take this one step further by providing health screens so that they can have the piece of mind that comes with understanding their health completely.
- Connection
- Even if you are not returning to the workplace full time, make sure that your team are staying in contact and have some social interactions.
- Isolation can have a very negative impact on mental health.
- Regular breaks
- This is especially important if working from home. Without colleagues around to chat to or grab a coffee with, many employees have a tendency to work constantly throughout the day. This can lead to burn out which will eventually lead to absenteeism and sick leave.
- At least one break per day should be taken away from the workspace. This could be a walk around the neighbourhood or simply grabbing a bite to eat away from the desk.
- Open communication
- Giving your employees the opportunity to speak up about any big stressors in their work or life can resolve the issue at an early stage.
- This also instils a sense of respect and care in your employees, which will only benefit their mental health and attitude towards work.
HOW THE DOCTORS CLINIC GROUP CAN HELP
A healthier workforce is a happier workforce, and this includes being mentally healthy too. By investing in your employee wellbeing strategy and providing your managers with adequate training to talk about mental health issues, you can reduce sickness absence leave and the impact it can have on your business.
As well as GP services, we can provide thorough mental health support with our private GPs and consultant specialists:
- Same day GP appointments – all GPs have professional mental health training
- Rapid referrals to our consultant psychiatrist and other specialists covered by all major PMI insurers
- Mental health wellbeing questionnaire for a company-wide benchmarking exercise
- Manager’s toolkit
- Mental health seminars
- Mental health first aid training