At FD Consultants we offer a full-day ‘Mental Health Awareness’ Workshop for Managers. We have divided this workshop into two half days as we are currently offering this remotely. “As a manager I now have the tools and confidence to manage mental health challenges in the workplace.” The workshop provides managers with the tools, knowledge and understanding of how to support the mental health of staff members and their teams. We have found that managers often feel less confident dealing with psychological health issues compared to physical health problems. Due to living and working through a pandemic we are all impacted psychologically, and mental health is being discussed more openly. Organisations need to have procedures in place to encourage and promote discussions about the mental health and wellbeing of staff in the workplace. This workshop provides managers with evidence-based techniques and models to support staff psychologically. We explore many of the common mental health disorders, so managers can identify specific mental health issues in the workplace and be alerted to early warning signs. We discuss risk issues, mental health myths, and the management of suicidal ideation. We share various leadership models to improve communication and listening skills. We share an easy to use ‘Wellness Action Plan’ that managers can refer to when supporting someone with mental health issues. “This is the best workshop I have attended in the nine years I have worked at my organisation.” Living and working through a pandemic and managing staff remotely is challenging therefore managers will learn how to support staff through this unprecedented time. The workshop will create a universal language to discuss issues of mental health and wellbeing throughout the organisation, and in turn challenge the erosive impact of stigma. If you or your organisation would like more information on any of our courses, then do get in touch with us today. Check out our website www.fdconsultants.net or email us directly [email protected]
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We are currently living and working through a pandemic and this is impacting individuals in different ways. Some individuals are isolated and feeling lonely, others feel they have no space and have to juggle many family responsibilities. It is important as managers that we spend some time getting to know each of our staffs’ individual circumstances through this unprecedented time. During the pandemic everyone’s stress levels are heightened as we navigate uncertainty, we become disconnected from family and friends, and we have less access to many of our usual coping strategies.
Themes we have noticed from supporting staff over the last few months include, online fatigue, reduction in motivation and feeling disconnected and lonely. At FD Consultants we have been supporting organisations for several years and at this time of the year, we have noticed an increase in mental health struggles. We support the Samaritans and are aware that the numbers of suicides can increase during the December and January months. This year FD Consultants have seen an increase in the demand for regular supervision sessions for staff, to enable staff to focus on their wellbeing and remain resilient through this challenging time. We have been offering more individual mental health management coaching session to offer guidance to manager’s when supporting staff with mental health needs. Our ‘Stress Management and Resilience Building’ and ‘Trauma Awareness’ workshops have also been in great demand, as well as our ‘Psychological First Aid Peer Support Training’. Some organisations have been completing wellbeing plans with their staff, specifically during the Coronavirus period. We are aware of many versions of this plan and a great deal of inconsistency in how they are delivered to staff. We therefore decided to develop a simple ‘Wellness Action Plan’ for staff to complete and discuss further with their managers. We have been sharing this with our client organisations and we are happy to share it in this blog today. Some organisations complete this ‘Wellbeing Action Plan’ with all new staff, and it is reviewed every six months. Other organisations refer to the plan when a member of staff is in a mental health crisis. I would suggest completing this plan with all staff during this pandemic as we are all experiencing a crisis in one way or another and reviewing the plan every six months. The Wellness Action Plan is a useful tool to help identify what impacts our mental health and what keeps us resilient. It enables conversations to take place about mental health and challenge stigma in the workplace. Wishing you wellness and comfort throughout December. Best wishes, Fiona 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. As human beings we do not like to feel things are out of our control. We like to feel prepared and make plans for the future. When we can’t do this, due to living and working through a crisis such as Covid-19, we may start to feel out of control, stressed, anxious or depressed. At FD Consultants we facilitate our trademark ‘Stress Management and Resilience Building’ half day workshop, where we refer to the ‘Locus of Control’ model; exploring ‘what do we have control over, and what do we not have control over’? We are forced to reduce our expectations and focus on the smaller achievements when living and working through a crisis. We need to learn ways to accept the things that we cannot control and invest our energy in the things that we can control. The three main characteristics of remaining resilient are; adaptability, finding meaning in adversity, and an acceptance of reality. The human race has shown how adaptable and creative it can be throughout this global pandemic; we have found ways to stay connected and create community remotely, we have improvised and adapted to new ways of working, and we have deeply appreciated our ‘key workers’ and all those that have shown ‘audacity’ and ‘kindness’ through these unprecedented times.
At FD Consultants we psychologically protect our ‘key workers’ and all the organisations that are on the frontline, often having to put themselves in harm’s way to support others. We have supported staff in the NHS, the humanitarian sector, emergency first responders, and mental health charities, who are at risk of experiencing burnout or trauma. We also support the staff that can be overlooked during a crisis, such as journalists, artificial intelligence and film industry personnel, researchers and data analysts reviewing traumatic material online, and fundraisers, who are all equally at risk of experiencing secondary trauma, often referred to as vicarious trauma. Our ‘Trauma and Vicarious Trauma Awareness’ workshop is currently in great demand, as organisations are becoming much more aware of this psychological health risk to staff. This was highlighted recently by a case made against Facebook, where staff sued the organisation for suffering Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) for being exposed to traumatic material via social media. At FD Consultants we support organisations managing critical incidents such as, pandemics, natural disasters, civil unrest, bullying & harassment, sexual violence, mental health crises, terrorist attacks and kidnapping & hostage taking. We have offered consultancy to organisations, when managing organisational change, with policy and procedure reviews, improving equal access to psychological services for all staff, researching mental health crisis pathways and investigating critical incident response. When FD Consultants are informed of a critical incident, information is presented to us in anxiety-fuelled chaotic chunks. We need to place all the pieces of the puzzle together to enable us to see the bigger picture. Depending on the nature of the incident this process can take hours, or even days, before we receive all the relevant information needed. We are skilled at transforming chaos into productive and supportive measures to protect individuals and the organisation. We are specialist in trauma care and understand the importance of the initial first stages of support and how crucial this is in someone’s recovery process. We advise and guide organisations in best practice psychological care for staff. Having worked in trauma for over 15 years, I believe that everyone can recover from traumatic events. I hold onto the light of hope when the individual may feel they are lost in the darkness. There is a wealth of research about ‘Post traumatic Growth’. I have seen this occur over and over again, working alongside individuals that have come through the most horrendous and painful experiences, whom become more resilient and use their experiences to help others. My own story is one of post traumatic growth, having come from experiencing developmental trauma in my childhood and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in my early twenties, to one of setting up FD Consultants a network of trauma specialist therapists wanting to support and help individuals and organisations that are impacted by traumatic events. I wanted to end by sharing some of the achievements FD Consultants has experienced over the last year. Our own story of Post Traumatic Growth and how we have grown and developed through this pandemic.
During a crisis we need to work even harder at building and maintaining the resources that keep us resilient. Most of us have had to reassess what these resources are as our options have become more limited due to lockdown and the guidelines to remain Covid safe. Every time I facilitate one of our workshops it reminds me to take care of myself, as this does not come naturally to us. Many neuroscientists believe we have a negative brain bias, and when we are stressed berating thoughts, such as ‘I am not good enough’, ‘I am not coping’, ‘I am a failure’ make a great deal of ‘noise’ in our heads. As with Post-Traumatic Growth the current challenges will enable us to grow and develop. Spend some time creating positive mantras or counterarguments for the negative statements that become a repetitive ‘noise’ in our heads, and remember to offer yourself many acts of kindness during this challenging time. Wishing you a gentle end to a very difficult year. Best wishes, Fiona 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. Back in 2016 an article was published (101 Fundraising) regarding the mental wellbeing of professional fundraisers and how they can be exposed to vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue and burnout and yet even today very little support is given to staff in these roles.
It is widely recognised that those on the frontline of caring for others e.g. firefighters, aid workers, paramedics etc are at risk of developing mental health issues, potentially leading to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). There are also so many other roles that could be categorised as high risk due to the level of exposure to traumatic material, such as fundraisers, researchers, and front-of-office staff. While these roles are not on the frontline, pulling bodies from collapsed buildings, medically caring for someone who is severely injured, or supporting a survivor of sexual violence, their role is indeed to help. They are often exposed to listing to traumatic stories of supporters and donors. There is a great deal of research now to show the risk of being effected by traumatic material indirectly, known as vicarious trauma. At FD Consultants we 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. We also 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. 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 from PTSD or vicarious trauma. 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. Please do contact us at [email protected] if you require our psychological support services. 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. Throughout October FD Consultants will be looking at the impact COVID-19 has had on all of us in one way or another. We’ll be focussing on our new webinar service entitled “Living in uncertain times”, sharing tips on how we can all look after ourselves, exploring the positives of living with Coronavirus, and the impact it may have on our future. As staff return to the workplace or continue to work from home it is important that management consider the wellbeing of their teams and implement the following:
If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s the importance of creativity, to be more patient, and to stay connected with family and friends. Being flexible helps us to stay resilient during difficult times, as does appreciating others more, and offering acts of kindness. Whilst this is a frightening and stressful time, it’s also an opportunity to grow. At FD Consultants we often experience, first-hand, Post-Traumatic Growth (Joseph, 2011), where individuals who survive trauma become stronger, more resilient and turn the negative experience into something positive to help others heal in the future. 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. If you want to find out more request one of FD Consultants webinars to support your staff by emailing us at [email protected] Date: Oct 2020 Author: Maddie Nixon (Associate for FD Consultants) |
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