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
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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. The efficacy of psychological interventions to increase wellbeing is, in many ways, the heart of positive psychology. While positive psychology can be beneficial in a multitude of individual and group contexts, incorporating concepts such as virtues, strengths, and mindfulness to your work with groups can help create a supportive framework for growth and development. This support network has the potential to increase wellbeing, connectedness, hope, life purpose, and vocational calling – and that is just the tip of the iceberg. So how can you, as a facilitator, create a group learning experience that is positive, professional, and valuable? 6 Tips to Successfully Teach Positive Psychology in Groups 1. Encourage Experiential Learning According to Biswas-Diener & Patterson (2011), when teaching positive psychology in a group setting an experiential approach with an emphasis on the practical applications of positive psychology – rather than merely memorising content – is vital. Put simply, practitioners who instruct clients on the effects of various interventions should then encourage clients to practice those interventions in their own lives to maximise the potential for positive outcomes. The goal of positive psychology instruction should be more than transferring knowledge; it should also incorporate practical exercises, activities, and tools that can be connected and applied to real-life situations. In this way, when clients learn about particular topics, they can connect the material to concrete experiences. 2. Develop Group Cohesion Cohesion is a uniting force within any group. A sense of unity and cohesion encourages cooperation and commitment toward group goals, effective communication, a sense of inclusion, and attraction to the group and individual members. Group cohesion has two distinct dimensions (Johnson, Burlingame, Olsen, Davies, & Gleave, 2005):
Additionally, cohesion can be inspired through constructive communication and the resolution of conflicts in a positive way before they spiral out of control. 3. Create a Positive Learning Experience An essential facet of positive psychology is engaged learning, whereby employees can process new information in meaningful ways and actively participate in the learning experience. Those who experience a positive learning environment are likely to share their experiences with others, which can result in positive word-of-mouth and a greater reputation in the marketplace. 4. Use Positive Language Rather than focusing on deficits and problems, positive language creates opportunities for hope, change, and improvement. Actively incorporating non-judgmental, inclusive, and future-oriented language can help improve employees’ ability to recognise their strengths and identify the good in themselves and their surrounding environment. 5. Provide Clear Feedback In the absence of feedback, your group may find it challenging to learn and progress. Feedback guides, motivates and reinforces effective behaviours while simultaneously reducing ineffective behaviours. Within a group setting feedback can be given to individual members, subsets of members, or the group as a whole and is an effective tool for development and evaluation. Feedback can help groups to learn and develop in four ways:
6. Respect Your Ethical Responsibilities Ethical codes not only guide the standards for appropriate conduct, but they also promote transparency and accountability. Groups should incorporate the following to ensure high standards of conduct are maintained when working together:
There are six main areas that can lead to work-related stress if they are not managed properly. These are:
For example, employees may say that they:
What are some of the stress factors when working in the Humanitarian Sector? (Dunkley, 2018)
Stress affects people differently, what stresses one person may not affect another. Factors like skills and experience, age or disability may all affect whether an employee can cope. By talking to your employees and understanding how to identify the signs of stress, you can prevent and reduce stress in your workplace. Here at FD Consultants we believe in preventative management and run various training programmes to support staff to manage stress, and more importantly enable managers to spot the signs of employee stress and how to support their colleagues. Contact us today for more details on our training programmes Understanding how a business can best support its employees’ mental health has evolved drastically in the past decades. Mental health is a growing workplace concern, with the related indirect impact to businesses estimated at £62.5 billion lost to poor productivity and absent employees. Fortunately, many leaders at every rung of the corporate ladder are learning how to create safe, open environments and help employees perform at their best. Many misconceptions about mental health still exist, but as those stigmas begin to fall away, companies are taking advantage of the benefits of supporting holistic employee health. When employees are healthy and engaged, they are more likely to be satisfied and productive at work. By making employee mental health a priority, managers create a supportive environment where people are able to bring their best selves to work. A strong culture and mental health focus also helps decrease employee turnover. This increase in retention saves money in onboarding costs and also adds the benefits of maintaining customer relationships and preserving institutional knowledge so corporate and industry experience is not lost because employees are unhappy with their current jobs. These are essential areas of concern for leadership teams looking to build a strong company culture, improve retention and increase revenue. Here are five ways managers can support mental health and create a safe and transparent culture: 1. Talk About Mental Health Tearing down stigmas is arguably the most important thing any manager can do to promote mental health. Leaders often encourage physical health with their teams, broadly letting people know it’s okay to take care of illnesses and needs as they arise, and they should not be afraid to do the same with mental health. 2. Offer Employee Benefits That Cover Mental Health Services As more companies become attuned to the needs and benefits of employee mental health, more benefit plans are including mental health services as an option for their employees. Managers should promote and discuss these with their team members. 3. Create Opportunities for Employees to De-stress There is a persistent belief that time away from their desk or a work task is time wasted. Studies have found the opposite to be true: relaxing, re-centring and returning to tasks improves productivity. 4. Create a Safe and Welcoming Work Environment Expectations of results are part of any job, but few things will relieve day-to-day stress in employees more than knowing it is okay for them to fail. Managers who welcome the opportunity to help employees learn from failures will encourage people to be open about areas where they feel uncertain, rather than pretending they can do everything. 5. Be an Example of Good Mental Health Leaders often fall into the trap of encouraging one behaviour and modelling something different. This is rarely more obvious than with stress relief and mental health. If a manager doesn’t take advantage of well-being benefits and recreational opportunities, then their teams will not feel empowered to do so, either. If you want further information about how managers can support their staff, or details of our training programmes please contact us on [email protected]. |
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