Instigating mental health peer support programmes into an organisation can help challenge stigma and create a healthy organisational culture. Peer support programmes are cost effective and can help reach staff that are in remote locations or have limited access to psychosocial support.
“85% of individuals felt stigma was still a problem in the workplace and prevented people from reaching out for necessary support” (Dunkley, 2018). Another factor preventing staff from reaching out for support is due to feelings of ‘guilt’. One aid worker informed me it took her five years before she reached out for help after suffering from vicarious trauma symptoms. Due to the time it took her to get support her vicarious trauma had now become a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. She said to me, ‘‘I felt guilty if I informed anyone I was suffering. How could I complain, when I was faced with such despair in my work, and others were suffering from so much more than me?’ A manager that had gone through organisational restructuring and had to make some of his team’s roles redundant, had found the process very stressful. Previously he had been working to a tight deadline to complete a campaign he was working on supporting individuals who had been falsely imprisoned. By the time he came to see FD Consultants his stress had turned into burnout. ‘I would find myself bursting into tears or be overcome with anger at the slightest thing. I felt constantly on edge, had difficulty sleeping and had awful vivid thoughts of people trying to get to me. It took me several months before I admitted to myself, I need help.’ Peer support programmes train peers to offer early and good quality support which can prevent an individual’s vicarious trauma developing into post-traumatic stress disorder, or stress developing into burnout. If someone goes off work with stress-related issues they may be off work for a few days, if someone goes off work with burnout, they may be off work for weeks or even months and may never return to the workplace. Additionally, research shows that when an individual receives support early, they will recover quicker, therefore preventing long-term health problems. Training mental health peer supporters in the workplace enables staff to feel equipped to recognise the warning signs and symptoms of ill-mental health in themselves or their colleagues and feel prepared to offer the initial support and signposting to specialist psychological services if necessary. In our workshops we provide simple and practical tools to support individuals in distress. The training also builds individual’s resilience and understanding in how best to support themselves when under high levels of stress, whether from workload, the nature of the work, tight deadlines, a rapidly expanding organisation, or organisational restructuring. I visited an Occupational Health service in Nairobi to train staff in responding in a crisis. During the training I referred to the word, ‘Ubuntu’ (a Nguni word and Southern African philosophy) – ‘I am, because we are’. Healing from workplace psychological challenges should be a collaborative process; we need support from mental health informed organisations, with implemented best practice psychological support services and well-trained mental health peer supporters. This alone can create a healthy and resilient organisational culture. Van Der Kolk, a psychiatrist, also refers to the word Ubuntu: ‘my most profound experience with healing from collective trauma was witnessing the work of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was based on the central and guiding principle of Ubuntu…. that denotes sharing what you have, as in “my humanity is inextricably bound up in yours.” Ubuntu recognises that true healing is impossible without recognition of our common humanity and our common destiny.’ (Van Der Kolk, 2014, p. 349). I leave you to reflect on how well your workplace integrates the word ‘Ubuntu’ into the values and principles of the organisation. If you want to help to implement a peer support programme into your organisation, please email [email protected]. Next month we will be exploring mental health services for national staff. Even though there is a greater ration of national staff verses international staff, the disparity of funding continues to be significant. Fiona Dunkley (Founder of FD Consultants) For organisations looking for employee psychological support, FD Consultants are the trauma specialists and well-being service who will best deliver a reliable, quick, and bespoke support system in the workplace. FD Consultant’s team of accredited specialists will offer ongoing support to help manage stress, prevent burnout and provide specialist trauma care where required, enabling your staff with the tools to cope, and recover more quickly.
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The image of an elephant, in its original habitat, roaming through the Kruger Park, South Africa, is imprinted on my mind today; watching the magnificent stillness, at sunset and sunrise, as the red blanket radiates over the landscape. I have also witnessed elephants in India during festival times, although equally magnificent creatures, this was a harder observation, as the elephants had large chains around their ankles and had become subdued to the loud bangs of celebration all around them. In Hinduism, Ganesha, one of the most worshipped Gods, is easily recognised by his elephant’s head. Ganesha is characterised as the remover of obstacles. The large elephant headed deity, removing that which is negative in its path.
When we are impacted by trauma, we may feel chained, restricted, fragmented, subdued, and penned in by unmoveable obstacles. There is a great deal of research now that shows when we recover from trauma, we can experience post traumatic growth. My book “Psychosocial Support for Humanitarian Aid Workers: A Roadmap of Trauma and Critical Incident Care” (Dunkley, 2018), is full of case studies of aid workers who have suffered acute stress, burnout or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The last chapter focuses on each and every one of these stories and describes a process of ‘post traumatic growth’, where many of these individuals have gone on to use their experiences to help others. My own story of post traumatic growth is described in my book, and perhaps is the main reason my work specialises in trauma care. I am able to sit in the most uncomfortable places and hold hope that each individual will recover. I strongly believe everyone can recover from trauma with specialist support. Unfortunately, there are many therapists that state they work with trauma, but are not specialists. Someone’s recovery of maybe six sessions, develops into years of talking therapy. Many of our associates at FD Consultants offer EMDR and TF-CBT trauma therapy (as recommended by WHO, APA and NICE). At FD Consultants we offer a half-day ‘Trauma and Vicarious Trauma Workshop’. Staff that are identified in ‘high risk’ roles, possibly through the location or intensity of their work, or the risk of being exposed to traumatic material, whether directly or indirectly, would benefit from this workshop. It is a more in-depth look at the neuroscience of trauma, physiology, symptoms and building resources, than our stress management workshop. There are many myths and misunderstanding about how to best treat individuals who are traumatised. There is also a great risk of re-traumatising someone who is suffering from trauma symptoms without the knowledge from this workshop. Therefore, this workshop is also helpful for managers supporting staff who may be suffering trauma or vicarious trauma, and staff who have been impacted by a critical incident. Over the last few years at FD Consultants we have supported staff who have experienced sexual violence, hostage and kidnapping, civil unrest, assault, bullying and harassment, road traffic accidents, natural disasters, death of colleagues through accident or suicide, and the impact of organisational restructuring. We have supported organisations’ whose staff have been impacted by the Ethiopian plane crash, conflict in Yemen and Syria, earthquakes in Indonesia, Australian bush fires, floods in India, the Persian Gulf crisis, further Ebola outbreaks, and the Myanmar Rohingya refugee crisis. But not only do we, as FD Consultants, recognise the direct impact of trauma, we also make sure organisations do not overlook the corrosive impact of vicarious trauma, sometimes known as secondary trauma. Research states that by listening to stories of trauma, we can start to be impacted by trauma symptoms, especially if we are empathic or intuitive, as our mirror neurones start to fire in the same way as the person telling us the story. Listening to the media or reading traumatic material can impact us vicariously. Organisations do not necessarily know what lies in someone’s past and whether they may have a deep-rooted trauma that can be triggered by the work they do. We have carried out psychological debriefings for staff who completed research on human rights issues, such as torture, false imprisonment, sexual violence or suicide. We support researchers, journalists, and legal staff. We have also helped frontline staff, such as reception staff, who may experience direct threat in the office, or indirect threat through social media or email. For one large international NGO (non-governmental organisation), we have started facilitating ‘threat communication’ workshops alongside security consultants, as we are finding this type of issue increasing. If you want to find out more about our workshops, please email [email protected]. If you are working in an environment where there is risk of being exposed to traumatic material, or you are managing staff that are at risk, please become trauma informed. Fiona Dunkley (Founder of FD Consultants) For organisations looking for employee psychological support, FD Consultants are the trauma specialists and well-being service who will best deliver a reliable, quick, and bespoke support system in the workplace. FD Consultant’s team of accredited specialists will offer ongoing support to help manage stress, prevent burnout and provide specialist trauma care where required, enabling your staff with the tools to cope, and recover more quickly. I was fortunate to start 2020 in Kerala, South India on a working holiday. My 5am alarm clock was music and chanting coming from the nearby Hindu temple. I would take an early morning stroll, before the heat of the sun zapped my energy, through the local village to the fishing port. Here time seemed to stand still, as I watched the fishermen rhythmically lowering and rising their large fishing nets into the water, intuitively knowing when the time was right. Watching these men created a pause moment deep inside myself. As the nets rose, I took a deep inhalation, as the nets lowered, I took a completed exhalation.
I have had so many clients say to me in their assessment sessions, I feel like I haven’t breathed properly for years. How precious our breath is and how we take it for granted. It is our life source and so much healing and good health comes from breathing properly and mindfully. One exercise I teach participants in the stress management workshop is to take a deep breath in and make the out breath longer than the in breath. This activates our parasympathetic nervous system and helps us to relax. For one client it took a full month before she could make her out breath longer than her in breath, which showed me she had been living life in the stress lane for a very long time. At FD Consultants we offer a half-day ‘Stress Management and Resilience Building’ workshop. We recommend that “ALL” staff who join an organisation where workload and work pressure is high, and there is a risk of being exposed to traumatic material, whether directly or indirectly, should attend this workshop as part of their induction. Staff need to be informed and prepared to what they may be exposed to in the workplace, build strategies for managing stress, and recognise the signs in themselves and their colleagues. We want to encourage organisations to build into their framework preventative measures to support staff. This can improve an organisation’s culture and create a healthy and resilient organisation. By giving staff the tools to recognise the signs of stress, trauma, burnout or compassion fatigue enables them to reach out for support when necessary. Research has shown that the earlier someone gets support the quicker they will recover and can prevent long-term illness. I had time to digest a healthy dose of reading material whilst away. One of the books I read was ‘Joy on Demand’ by Chade-Meng Tan. Chade-Meng believes ‘we can develop major mental skills like the ability to access joy on demand, and in doing so, improve every single aspect of our lives. The mental equivalent of physical exercise is meditation’ (Tan, 2016). By learning techniques to calm the mind, we can be more prepared during stressful times, and keep ourselves mentally well. Another book I enjoyed reading was ‘Momo’ (Ende, 1984) a beautiful story about where time comes from. It is full of poignant messages about what we value in life, ‘time is life itself, and life resides in the human heart’. In the story “time thieves” strip humans of time, humans start working harder and faster, and avoid at all costs sitting in silence. It is not until we learn to sit in our own silence that we can change unhealthy patterns, as the noise of ‘doing’ drowns all other reason out of the mind. I have heard people attend our workshops stating that they never have time for themselves, as if it is something they have just come to accept. We need to listen to our self-talk and hear the warning signs loud and clear. If we are saying we never have enough time for ourselves, then something has to change, or we will become ill. It took me a week into my break before I could fully relax. I found myself feeling ‘guilty’ and saying to myself ‘I should be doing more’. One of the topics we cover in the stress management workshop is the eight common stress thinking patterns, the eighth being ‘should’, ‘ought to’, and ‘must’. Many Keralan people that I met seemed to have a wise soul. Lakshit, a life coach, said to me one morning ‘the more you chase the money, the unhealthier your lifestyle becomes, and the more you have to spend on putting yourself right again’. His statement reminded me of the stress cycle, the longer we are in it the harder it is to see, and the more difficult it is to break. He also taught me to focus on the ‘experience’ I offer to people. My dream is to setup a retreat, but at present I can’t work out how that can happen financially, but an experience can be gained anywhere, anytime through human connection. His statement helped me to reframe my thinking by bringing my mind back to appreciating the present, rather than stretching too far into the future. Another beautiful soul I met who manages a small Airbnb by cooking, cleaning and driving his Tuk Tuk, Mr Jobin said, ‘I love my job, I constantly see the scenery change around, it refreshes my mind each and every day.’ Enjoying being in the moment and connecting to nature are such simple and rich resources for calming the mind, and don’t cost us anything. If you want to find out more about our workshops, please email [email protected]. Try to give yourself the gift of time, even for one day, and listen to your integrity when sitting in your silence. Fiona Dunkley (Founder of FD Consultants) For organisations looking for employee psychological support, FD Consultants are the trauma specialists and well-being service who will best deliver a reliable, quick, and bespoke support system in the workplace. FD Consultant’s team of accredited specialists will offer ongoing support to help manage stress, prevent burnout and provide specialist trauma care where required, enabling your staff with the tools to cope, and recover more quickly. Organisations need to implement prevention services as much as treatment services when supporting staff mental health.
FD Consultants is a global psychological health consultancy. We find that organisations use our services after an incident occurs to offer ‘treatment’ services to staff to help the organisation and individual recover. This is an important part of mental health support. But at FD Consultants, we want to do more than treat crises. We want to encourage organisations to invest in ‘prevention’ services, so as to build stronger and more resilient organisations and workforce. Preparing staff for the journey ahead, by providing strategies for resilience building and informing them of the stress signs to watch out for, will reduce the risk of mental health issues in the workplace. At FD Consultants our ‘crisis response’ services make up 70% of the work we carry out. Organisations reach out for our support when managing a critical incident. We can offer ‘crisis management support’ to senior managers, ‘psychological debriefs’, ‘psychological first aid’, and ‘trauma specialist counselling’ to help the organisation and individual recover from a major crisis. We specialise in trauma care and have therapists trained in EMDR and TF-CBT (trauma approaches recommended by WHO, APA, NICE). Our prevention services make up 30% of the work we do; this consists of several training programmes such as, ‘stress management’, ‘trauma awareness’, ‘peer support programmes’, and ‘family liaison training’. We also offer ‘pre-deployment consultations’ and ‘yearly mental health screening’ for staff. We want to encourage organisations to integrate prevention measures to support staff into their framework. This can improve an organisation’s culture and create a healthy and resilient organisation. By giving staff the tools to recognise the signs of stress, trauma, burnout or compassion fatigue, we enable them to reach out for support when necessary. Research has shown that the earlier someone gets support, the quicker they will recover and can prevent long-term illness. In our workshops staff learn how to manage healthy boundaries and identify destructive communication patterns, enabling them to take some responsibility in their own self-care. The research I conducted when writing my book “Psychosocial Support for Humanitarian Aid Workers: A Roadmap of Trauma and Critical Incident Care” (Dunkley, 2018) highlighted that emergency first responders and aid workers often ‘overlooked their own self-care for the greater cause.’ We need to change an organisational culture from the ‘bottom up and the top down’. ‘Top down’ is where senior leadership role-model good self-care and prioritise implementing best practice mental health services for staff. Stress, anxiety and trauma are contagious, if senior managers are struggling it will cause a ripple effect throughout an organisation. Which is why FD Consultants offer mental health awareness trainings specifically for managers. ‘Bottom up’ change recognises that all staff are responsible for managing their work/life balance and healthy boundaries. Individuals need to be empowered to take responsibility for themselves and give themselves permission to say ‘No’ when work is unsustainable, rather than work themselves into the ground. If we take a helpless, victim role, and focus all our energy on expecting ‘top down’ to change or ‘save us’ we will only be left feeling resentful and make ourselves ill. Our workshops make sure we cover ‘top down’ as well as ‘bottom up’ strategies for building resilience. Staff who are exposed to traumatic material through their work, whether directly or indirectly, are at risk of vicarious trauma. Staff who work in emergency first response, mental health charities and the humanitarian sector often have high-pressure jobs, with demanding workloads, including unsociable hours or shift work. Therefore, we recommend all staff attend our half-day ‘stress management and resilience building’ workshop as part of their induction process. Additionally, members of staff whose work exposes them to traumatic material, directly or indirectly, should attend our half-day ‘vicarious trauma and trauma awareness workshop’. Instigating ‘mental health peer support’ programmes into an organisation can help challenge stigma and create a healthy organisational culture. Peer support programmes are cost effective and can help reach staff that are in remote locations, or have limited access to psychosocial support. Additionally, ‘yearly mental health screening’ programmes will safeguard staff from risk of developing mental health issues due to the nature of the work. This service will also highlight when an individual may need additional support. Identifying mental health risk early can improve recovery rates and work performance. Make 2020 the year your organisation implements high quality, best practice, psychosocial support services for staff. For organisations looking for employee psychological support, FD Consultants are the trauma specialists and well-being service who will best deliver a reliable, quick, and bespoke support system in the workplace. FD Consultant’s team of accredited specialists will offer ongoing support to help manage stress, prevent burnout and provide specialist trauma care where required, enabling your staff with the tools to cope, and recover more quickly. |
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