Becky Wright is writing here about taking care of the mental health of staff working from home, as well as your own wellbeing during this period of social isolation…

let’s start by visualising yourself no longer walking into your workplace, your finances are uncertain, suddenly your not able to see your friends or attend all the places that you usually visit. Your routine which normally keeps you well you can no longer carry out. All your usual support networks have stopped as everyone is worried about their own families, you check facebook and its full of news stories that are making your anxiety increase. You have been told to stay at home, your manager is busy, your mental health is starting to feel worse, you don’t want to get out of bed … this would usually sound like a case study but today its a lived experience hard to believe in so may ways a few weeks ago.

We all have mental health so this virus is having a huge impact on how we think, feel and behave. Its also going to have an impact in how we feel about each other so start by checking in with those you work with, make sure you have all your staffs emergency numbers up to date and ask when you connect about their health and wellbeing. We recommend using the WAP Wellbeing Action Plan

In this plan you could come up with an agreement around how to look after your mental wellbeing so if your managing someone you have some feedback on what to look out for with that person if they start to decline. Its a really good tool something we use in our Mental Health Awareness for Line Managers (Online Training) A4 Promo v4 LORES

The WAP Wellbeing Action Plan are a personalised, practical tool we can all use – whether we have a mental health problem or not – to help us identify what keeps us well at work, what causes us to become unwell and the support we would like to receive from our manager to boost our wellbeing or support us through a recovery. We all have mental health just as we all have physical health and this WAP has been designed to support us all to manage our mental health, wherever we are on the spectrum.

To read the full version CLICK HERE

Becky has also created a free video all about having difficult conversations with those who are working remotely about their mental health and wellbeing.

If you would like further help or support from Becky, visit www.newleaf.uk.com