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World Mental Health Day takes place annually on 10 October. This year’s theme is ‘mental health is a universal human right’.
The purpose of this annual event is to raise awareness of mental health and to drive positive change. One of the main factors for this is having more conversations about mental health and wellbeing and sharing tips and resources focusing on how to look after mental health.
At Maxwell Hodge, we formally check in with our employee during our annual appraisal process, where we ask for feedback about employee mental health and if there is anything the organisation can do to better support their wellbeing. This includes asking questions about how they feel coming into work each day, whether there is anything in or out of work affecting them and how they rate their work-life balance. These questions are personal and not everyone feels comfortable answering them, but the purpose for asking them is because mental health is a workplace issue – people cannot simply forget their personal circumstances, thoughts and feelings when they come into work each day. Particularly because mental health problems are going to impact behaviour both in and out of work.
We often say in the wellbeing blogs and information we circulate, that we all have mental health and will experience highs and lows throughout our lives. We feel this underpins the meaning behind the theme, as mental health is a universal human right because we all have it and should be able access support, just like having access to medical help for our physical health.
Not everyone feels comfortable talking about mental health. However, there are tips that you can use for this. As stated by the Mental Health Foundation, you can:
- Talk to someone you trust.
- Think about the best place to talk – do you want to talk face-to-face, on a phone or video call?
- Prepare yourself for their reaction – not everyone is going to understand what you are going through but don’t let this put you off trying to explain what is going on.
If you want to talk to somebody about their mental health, try:
- Finding a private and comfortable space to talk without distractions
- Listening to what they are saying and ask follow up questions
- Asking how you can support them
We want to encourage people, including our employees, to be open and honest about any struggles or concerns they have so that we can support them as best we can. We have checked in with our employees, today on World Mental Health Day, to ask them how they are.
We also want to encourage you to try using mindfulness as a way to enhance wellbeing. This is because mindfulness can help to manage wellbeing and mental health, with research indicating positive effects on the mind, brain, body, behaviour and relationships with others (Mental Health Foundation). Mindfulness helps to keep you in the present and is therefore beneficial for people suffering from stress and anxiety in particular because you are not constantly thinking and worrying about future events. Rather, you are thinking about the here and now.
The aim of mindfulness, as explored by Mind, is to:
- become more self-aware
- feel calmer and less stressed
- feel more able to choose how to respond to your thoughts and feelings
- cope with difficult or unhelpful thoughts
- be kinder towards yourself.
Mindfulness isn’t going to work for everyone but a lot of people find that it helps them to manage day-to-day wellbeing (Mind). There are various mindfulness exercises to try, including those as detailed here on the Mind website.
- Mindful eating – paying attention to the taste, sight and textures of what you eat.
- Mindful moving, walking or running – focusing on the feeling of your body moving.
- Body scan – move your attention slowly through different parts of your body.
- Mindful colouring and drawing.
- Mindful meditation – sitting quietly to focus on your breathing, thoughts, sensations in your body or things you can sense around you.
Try incorporating the above into your daily life. If you are not sure whether mindfulness exercises will work for you, try them today and see how you feel.
References
- Mental Health Foundation – World Mental Health Day & How to look after your mental health using mindfulness
- Mind – Mindfulness exercises and tips
What is Wellbeing?
Wellbeing refers to “the state of being comfortable, healthy, or happy” (Mental Health Foundation, 2015).
With children and young people returning to or starting a new school/college, we thought it imperative to share an article focusing on children, young people and parent/guardian mental health and wellbeing.
Financial Wellbeing is essential because it means feeling secure and in control of day-to-day finances (CIPD, 2023).
Volunteers’ Week takes place 1-7 June, celebrating the positive contribution volunteers make to society.
At Maxwell Hodge, we have Employer Supported Volunteering (ESV) meaning our people can go and volunteer with a charity/organisation during work time. We are using Volunteers’ Week to encourage our people to utilise ESV because of the many benefits it has:
- For employees, volunteering can build connections and relationships, improve communication and confidence, as well as team working skills and creativity and increased fulfilment.
- We (the employer) benefit from stronger ties to our local communities, which deepens our commitment to making a difference in society. (You can check out our community engagement and CSR values here: https://www.maxwellhodge.co.uk/news/)
- The community benefit from enthusiastic volunteers who can use specialist skills and knowledge to make a difference.
Celebrating volunteers is important because of the commitment they make to good causes – think about those that take part in beach/park cleans. These people give up their own time to help the local community and protect the environment. It is therefore vital that we celebrate volunteers because simply, where would we be without them?
For more information on volunteering opportunities, check out your local organisations or have a look online: https://volunteersweek.org/get-involved/for-volunteers/becoming-a-volunteer/
The theme for this Mental Health Awareness Week is Anxiety
Resilience
Becoming more resilient is important for individuals and businesses. This is because building resilience means we can react better to situations. On an individual basis, this means we can deal with stress more effectively. For businesses, resilience enables a positive response to the ever-changing world of work, thus being in a better position to change and develop.
As we build resilience, we become better equipped for dealing with periods of stress. Consequently, we are able to better manage and support our wellbeing through resilience. However, building resilience and managing wellbeing is not always easy, nor straightforward. Specifically, there are factors and barriers that make it more difficult to be resilient. Mind (2023) explore the barriers to resilience in more detail here but some of the examples they provide include:
- Experiencing loneliness
- Experiencing discrimination and hate
- Having a long-term physical health condition
- Experiencing poverty and money worries
- Having a mental health problem
- Being a carer
- Being a single parent
In addition to there being different factors affecting how we manage stress, we also experience different causes of stress. Accordingly, the meaning of resilience and stress differs from person-to-person and is therefore personal (Mind).
What is Stress?
The HSE define stress as “the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them”.
Stress can occur in our personal lives as well as at work and can also be triggered by positive life changes such as moving house, getting married or having a baby because stress often occurs when we feel overwhelmed. When stress is encountered, our bodies produce stress hormones, which trigger a fight or flight response (Mental Health Foundation, 2022).
Causes of Stress
There are different causes of stress and as stated, stress is personal so what might be a trigger of stress for you may not have the same effect on people around you. However, some typical causes of stress that the majority of people will relate to are bereavement, relationship breakdown, job loss and money problems as well as work-related stress (Mental Health Foundation, 2022).
Stress is normal but high amounts of stress and feeling stressed for long periods has a negative impact, so it is imperative that we develop our own strategies for being able to deal with stress more effectively in the future. Some tips for this include:
- Identifying your own sources of stress and the impact of them.
- Priortise things that are important and make you feel good.
- Making time for fun and relaxation – whatever that means for you.
- Doing regular exercise.
- Connecting with others.
- Maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
- Seeking professional help.
Signs of Stress
It is important to be able to identify stress in ourselves as well as those around us. Stress can impact how we feel, which can produce physical symptoms and can influence behaviour (Mental Health Foundation, 2022). These signs are:
Feelings
- Anxiety
- Anger or aggression
- Sadness
- Irritability
- Frustration
- Depression
Reactions
- Headaches
- Nausea
- Indigestion
- Digestive problems
- Shallow breathing or hyperventilating
- Sweating
- Heart palpitations
- Aches and pains
Behaviour
- Withdrawal from other people or snapping at them
- Indecisiveness
- Lack of flexibility
- Tearful
- Sleep problems
- Over dependence/use of nicotine, alcohol or other drugs
Work-Life Balance
We all want to achieve a healthy work-life balance but working in a demanding role and industry can hinder this, as there are constant deadlines, pressure to provide a quality service to clients and meeting their demands and needs.
At Maxwell Hodge, we try to support our people with a better work-life balance through:
- A culture of openness to raise issues
- Flexible working and alternate working structures, such as compressed hours
- Homeworking, where possible
- Volunteering days for people to give back to the local community during working hours
- Paid Dependant’s Leave to support people with their caring responsibilities
- Encouraging employees to use their full annual leave entitlement
- Additional leave including birthday leave and long-service holidays for people to take more time for themselves
The most important aspect to consider in relation to work-life balance is thinking about what YOU need to meet your personal and professional needs and addressing this.
Summary
Overall, there is a lot to consider when it comes to stress and building resilience. We encourage further reading on these topics so that you can better understand your own stress and determine what works best for you to respond better to stress. For further reading, see links below.
Financial Worries
- https://www.moneyandmentalhealth.org/get-help/
- https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/advice-for-life-situations-and-events/how-to-cope-with-financial-worries/
Stress
- https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/explore-mental-health/a-z-topics/stress
- https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/stress/managing-stress-and-building-resilience/
- https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/self-help/guides-tools-and-activities/tips-to-reduce-stress/
Substance Help
- https://www.rehab-recovery.co.uk/about/
- https://www.recoverylighthouse.com/stress-can-lead-substance-abuse/
Work-Life Balance
Today, 14 March 2023, is My Whole Self Day. This is an annual campaign by Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England, the purpose of which is to drive positive workplace culture change
Whether you are in a relationship or not, you may experience difficult emotions around Valentine’s Day. You could particularly struggle at this time of year with heightened feelings of loneliness and/or low self-esteem. Idealised relationships often presented on social media and TV can trigger or worsen such emotions.
