Monday 18 May - Be kind to yourself - looking after your mental health
Our Council is supporting Mental Health Awareness Week again this year (Monday 18 to Friday 22 May). The theme for 2020 is “Kindness”. We recognise that protecting our mental health is central to us coping with and recovering from the coronavirus pandemic- with the psychological and social impacts likely to outlast the physical symptoms of the virus.
Why Kindness?
This week we will shine a light on how kindness is being expressed across our community, and we especially want to encourage all employees to consider additional ways to strengthen connections, to reflect on your own wellbeing and to take steps to be kind towards ourselves, and towards others. Research shows that kindness and our mental health are deeply connected; kindness is an antidote to isolation and creates a sense of belonging. Showing kindness and compassion towards ourselves helps us reduce stress, brings a fresh perspective and improve feelings of confidence and optimism.
Message from Leader
Council Leader Elaine Murray emphasises our commitment to good mental health. View the video here
Connect with others
Our Council is absolutely committed to the health & wellbeing of our employees and we are particularly keen to overcome any additional difficulties you may be facing at the current time. Each day this week we will focus on a different aspect of wellbeing and how we can focus on being kind. Making an extra effort to connect with others, practice self-care and share resources with others will help build resilience.
This week we will circulate additional information and guidance to help with this. We recognise you may be “shielding” or working from home and may feel isolated or struggling to juggle caring responsibilities and home-schooling with work; or you are out in the community working to deliver essential services. You are invited to consider additional ways you can connect with others at work, especially those with no direct access to employee emails or our Connect intranet site.
It would be great to hear about your innovative “keeping in touch” events /activities whilst maintaining safe working arrangements.
Please share your photos/posts /activities by sending them to: wellbeing@dumgal.gov.uk.
 Connect with our Mental Health Champions
Remember we have over 100 volunteer mental health champions from all services and across all council areas. Champions are still available during the coronavirus pandemic and their contact details can be found below as well as on COVID19 wellbeing page. You are invited to call/email any champion from our list if you are having a wobble moment; remember you are not restricted to contacting the champions from your own service area. The mental health champions are trained in Mental Health First Aid and are available to listen to you in confidence, provide support and to sign post you to relevant services which may help.
Connect with our counselling service
If you feel unable to talk to your line manager or mental health champion, you may wish to access our free, confidential counselling service by calling or emailing Genesis Occupational Health on telephone: 01387 248811 or email: enquiries@genesisohs.co.uk. They will arrange a telephone appointment with a trained counsellor/therapist within 24 hours. Counselling can help employees cope with an underlying mental health condition such as depression, anxiety etc as well as upsetting physical conditions or illness, a difficult life event, difficult emotions or other issues.
Remember you do not have to be absent from work to access counselling. Self-referral is confidential and private to you. Line managers will not be contacted without the employee’s knowledge or consent. If there are work-related issues an employee will be encouraged to report any work-related health problems to their line manager, so there can be meaningful support given whilst you are working.
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