The mental health of health and social care professionals is something that has not always been thought about, at least not until the pandemic when frontline workers came to the forefront of people’s minds. A spotlight was brought to care workers around the world on the lack of support on the mental health of those in this industry.
When the mental health of care workers is ignored the quality of care given to those who need it is decreased leading to mistakes being made. Due to the lack of support given to the wellbeing and mental health of care workers maintaining a healthy lifestyle becomes a difficult task.
Decreased support can lead to a range of different emotions and feelings, such as:
- Stress
- Guilt
- Shame
- Sadness
- Numbness
- Burnout
If you or anyone you know has been feeling this way, then you can find ways to cope below.
What can be done about recovery?
First you or others will need to find a balance between your personal needs and the needs of others, ensuring a healthy balance of the two. This includes separating your work and home life from one another. You can find out how to do this by reading one of our previous articles on this topic HERE
Start to rebuild back up resilience – after going through a rough patch or experiencing living with a mental health illness you can lose your spark and find it difficult to do the things you once loved, bringing down your willingness to restart doing these things. Finding ways you can slowly start to rebuild back up your resilience is one of the most important steps you can take in order to offer yourself some self-care. So, how can you do this? learn from your past experiences, what helped you to stay on track? remain hopeful, when we go through tough times or experience what it’s like to live with a mental health illness we can get stuck in a cycle of bad habits and bad thoughts, we forget that support is out there for anyone wanting to find it. Hope is not lost. You can find support in peers, family members, friends, partners, pets, people online and mental health professionals.
Enhance positive working environments for you and your staff team, creating an environment where people feel they can be themselves is something to aspire towards doing. It not only shows an improvement in the work being done but also in the wellbeing and happiness in you and your staff team. You can do this by prioritising the needs of your staff team, offering training, supporting them when and if needed and encouraging communication and listening.
The above are two main ways you can help towards improving the mental health of you and your staff team. Get further support HERE
