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.
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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. If you look up the definition of the word “organisational” you will see descriptions such as, planning and preparation, structure and systems, working together, and culture. This is exactly what organisations need to focus on during a crisis response. Organisations may have a crisis management plan; they may categorise events as critical or crisis incidents or non-emergency and emergency. Coronavirus is at the highest level of a crisis response that organisations will have experienced. At FD Consultants we specialise in supporting organisations when managing a crisis response. We have been supporting humanitarian aid workers deploy to share their expertise in managing pandemics and setting up large medical centres, frontline workers such as the police, ambulance services and NHS staff to help them maintain their resilience and manage their anxiety through this crisis, and we’ve been supporting mental health charities psychologically care for the wellbeing of their staff. Globally we are all experiencing a crisis response. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) definition of trauma requires actual or threatened death experienced directly or witnessed. Whether we are directly exposed to trauma either through our work, such as frontline workers, or we have lost a loved one through Corvid-19, or whether we are indirectly impacted by the change in our living conditions and witnessing trauma through the media, we will all be impacted. Trauma symptoms are at the extreme end of stress and anxiety symptoms. Traumatic events activate our survival response, which will trigger the emotional and survival parts of the brain. This can leave us feeling much more irrational, emotional and reactive. Some NHS staff are choosing not to return home to their families, during this time, to protect them from contracting Coronavirus. As a nation we are becoming more and more physically disconnected from each other, although at the same time, there are many new connections being made remotely. At FD Consultants we are a network of trauma specialist therapists. One thing we are aware of is that when individuals are dealing with a present trauma, historical unprocessed trauma can be triggered and brought up to the surface. Additionally, those with current and ongoing mental health issues may find their symptoms are exacerbated. So how can organisations look after their staff well during this unprecedented time and activate their crisis response to cover all aspects of crisis management. Below we share some of FD Consultants learning and experiences and explore how our work has changed since supporting organisations through Coronavirus (Covid-19). Supporting staff psychologically through a crisis response
By increasing staffs’ resources will enable individuals to remain resilient through this challenging time. When we are highly stressed our immune system depletes, we want to do all we can to encourage individuals to remain healthy and resilient through this unprecedented time and give everyone the best chance they can to come out the other end well and healthy. 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. Get in touch with us today Throughout March 2020 we are exploring mental health services for national staff. When international organisations are developing psychological support structures for their staff, the level of provision in country has to be part of the conversation, both for national and international staff. At FD Consultants, we have the capacity and knowledge to build robust support pathways for teams across the globe. We have carried out extensive mapping to understand where services exist in country, and where they are not adequate. Where information is lacking, we can carry out research to understand what services are on offer. Where services are lacking, we have the capacity to deliver specialist services. We also have associates in countries across the world, with whom we have personal experience of working. All of our therapists have gone through a robust interview and assessment process; they are accredited with demonstrable experience working with trauma. Our therapists are culturally competent, drawn from the countries in which they provide services. We do all of this to ensure that we can provide the best possible mental health care for all people. FD Consultants offer psychosocial support and trauma specialist services, including supporting organisations and staff through a critical incident. Staff working in the Humanitarian and Human Rights sector are at significant risk of psychological ill-health. National and local staff experience high levels of trauma symptoms, depression and anxiety; often living and breathing trauma every day whilst trying to survive in warzones or conflict-ridden environments, and also coping with everyday adversities, such as lack of food, clean water and access to medical care. Lack of security and a deteriorating situation has a great impact on the mental health of a population.
After working on wellbeing projects in Gaziantep and South Sudan we recorded 41% of the Turkish and Syrian staff, and 54% of the staff based in South Sudan, were experiencing high levels of trauma symptoms (suggesting a diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder [PTSD]). One of the organisations increased organisational resilience by senior staff attending psychological support sessions, challenging stigma and role modelling good self-care. The importance of peer support, building collaborative working with local services, or training local services (if necessary), enables psychosocial support to become accessible and continuous, rather than a ‘tick box’ exercise, that can leave staff feeling resentful and perplexed. The goal of peer support is in developing systems and practices that develop internal sustainability around wellbeing. If staff are being supported on a regular, on-going basis, the goal is that wellbeing is improved, the impact of chronic and traumatic stress is mitigated, and the need for specialised services is reduced. One aid worker summed up how she felt her national colleagues were supported, ‘My experience and that of many other aid workers is that national staff support is either non-existent or sub-par. As far as I know there are no psychosocial care options provided for national staff. They don’t get health insurance and the only psychosocial care international staff are offered is via our health insurance - and normally resources have to be found back in-home countries. Some options exist for [remote] support but it isn’t set up for national staff to access. It is a massive service gap.’ ‘Local staff working in conflict contexts are exposed to risk and critical incidents on a regular basis and often carry previous traumas from having grown up in a violent conflict context or having been a refugee from a young age. We seem to completely ignore this fact and apply such double standards (NGO wellbeing officer). At FD Consultants we offer peer support training, psychological screening and trauma awareness training. If you want to find out more about how to best support national staff please email us on [email protected]. 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. Get in touch with us today 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. |
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