During Mental Health Awareness Week this year we’re reflecting on ways in which MacIntyre can support staff who are experiencing mental health challenges.
Yesterday, we had our fortnightly ‘all-hands’ online meeting for staff, in which we discussed some of the issues around mental health and what support is available to staff.
Get moving
This year’s Mental Health Awareness Week’s theme is “Movement: moving more for your mental health”.
There are lots of ways MacIntyre staff keep moving. At our central office, there are regular lunchtime walking groups (although admittedly this has been rained off a lot recently!)
Frontline staff often have movement baked in to their day-to-day, whether that’s supporting lively children at our School, young people out in the community, or adults who have active hobbies such as cycling or going to the gym.
But even where the day job might be more sedentary, there are ways to get moving, even if it’s just putting a bit more wellie into doing the housework!
Employee Assistance Programme
MacIntyre has an EAP, run by a company called Telus, which offers a whole range of benefits, free of charge to staff.
One service they offer is one-on-one support and helpline, which staff can use when feeling stressed, having sleep problems or worrying about money. This is all entirely confidential.
One person wanted to give feedback on how helpful they found the service, and confided to us:
I was really stressed out about how I was going to manage financially given the cost of living crisis. My husband had recently lost his job and I was laying awake nights worrying. I wouldn’t say we’re out of the woods by any means, but the lady at Telus helped me think about how to put a plan together, gave me some practical tips, and just made me feel like we aren’t alone in this.
Telus also have a range of toolkits and videos on a wide range of topics promoting wellbeing.
(If you’re a MacIntyre staff member reading this, you can find the login details for Telus on the intranet, or contact the HR team.)
Supporting staff in difficult situations
What we do at MacIntyre is incredibly rewarding. Seeing someone with a learning disability blossom, give back to their local community, realise their ambitions and learn new skills is fantastic.
There are also situations which are more challenging. For example we support a lot of older people, and when someone develops dementia, and when someone dies, it can be very distressing for staff who have grown close to the person.
We offer debrief sessions to staff, run by MacIntyre’s specialist health team, which allow a safe space to explore what’s happened in a structured way, exploring people’s feelings and reactions and how to move forward. As our health team say: “It’s OK not to be OK.”
One of our managers didn’t feel they needed to be part of one of these debrief sessions, but afterwards said:
I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders
Supporting each other
These are just some of the ways we support staff who may be having mental health struggles. Of course one of the best resources we have is each other – encouraging people to be open and discuss how they are feeling.
Jess, who both works for MacIntyre and is supported by MacIntyre says:
If you bottle up feelings it’s like you’ve shaken up a big bottle of coke with the lid on, and one day you take the lid off and the whole thing explodes.
(Jess actually did this experiment with a coke bottle one day – she got drenched!)
Public resources
If you’re struggling with mental health, there are many resources to help, including Mind, the Samaritans, your GP, and the Mental Health Foundation. For men, you may find a local Man Cave or other resource – we wrote about this on Monday.
Don’t bottle it up, and keep moving!
