Looking after your own mental health
The Dealing with Pressure wiki page contains a wealth of resources you can explore to help you manage and improve your own wellbeing at work.
How to Improve and Maintain your Mental Wellbeing explains how to improve and maintain your mental wellbeing, whether you have a diagnosis of a mental health condition or not.
Five ways to wellbeing: Five simple steps researched and developed by the New Economics Foundation. Connect – be active – take notice – learn – give.
Top tips from MIND for staying well at work.
How to be Mentally Healthy at Work includes practical suggestions for things you can do and where you can go for support.
The Health and Safety Executive recognises that work related stress and mental health often go together. The symptoms of stress and common mental health problems are similar, for example, loss of appetite, fatigue and tearfulness can be symptoms of both. Work related stress may trigger an existing mental health problem that the person may otherwise have successfully managed without letting it affect their work. For people with existing mental health issues, work related stress may worsen their problem. If work related stress reaches a point where it has triggered an existing mental health problem, it becomes hard to separate one from the other.
Free: Mindfulness resources
Being mindful means being fully present in the moment without being distracted by past worries or future anxieties. Practising mindfulness can help to reduce stress, anxiety, and conflict; and can improve resilience, emotional intelligence, and communication at work. The basic technique is easy to learn and simple to practise daily.
The Mental Health Foundation has made available a number of short podcasts on wellbeing themes including a short explanation of the concept of mindfulness and a 10-minute introductory mindfulness exercise.
BeMindful.co.uk has relaunched with information on mindfulness, and an online mindfulness course.
Need a listening ear right now? Talk to Samaritans any time you like, in your own way, and off the record – about whatever’s getting to you. You don’t have to be suicidal.
Calls to the Samaritans are now free from both landlines and mobile phones. Call: 116 123
These pages
If there are any problems with these pages or you have any queries, then email the University Health, Safety & Environment Service.
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Back to Staying Safe and Well: Mental Health
Common mental health problems
Common mental health problems are the most frequent and most prevalent, and are usually successfully treated in primary care settings like GPs.
At least one in four people in England will experience a mental health problem at some point in their life, and one in six adults has a mental health problem at any one time.1.
However, many if not most people experience recovery from their mental health conditions; if not fully and completely, then at least to an extent that enables them to lead a fulfilling life for extended periods of time.
Common mental health problems include depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and personality disorders. The Mental Health Awareness page briefly describes each of these, and includes other common issues that may be experienced by people with mental health disorders.
Depression, anxiety, and mood
A simple, self-help cognitive-behaviour based on-line training programme: MoodGYM can be worked through at your own pace.
If you're interested in monitoring your daily ups and downs to see where your trigger points lie, try: Moodscope
Getting help
While self-help can go a long way, for more serious difficulties it’s important to get help from a professional. For all mental health issues, your GP will be the first port of call for accessing help through the NHS including medication, counselling and other therapies.
All members of staff can access counselling for both work-related issues and non-work-related issues. Information on how to access these confidential services can be found on Staying Safe and Well.
Other therapies that can be helpful include:
Life coaching
Life coaches provide clients with the tools to confidently face difficult situations, push past emotional barriers and eventually view life with fresh, hopeful and enlightened eyes. The life coach will work with you to help you move forward with your life. Life coaching is often seen as a partnership between you and your life coach, who will gently encourage you to explore how to make positive changes in your life. A life coach should also offer support and feedback to help you to stay focused on your goals.
http://www.lifecoach-directory.org.uk/
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)
CBT is a talking therapy that focuses on how you think about the things going on in your life and how this affects the way you deal with emotional problems. It looks at how you can change any negative patterns of thinking or behaviour that may be causing you difficulties. In turn, this can change the way you feel.
CBT theory suggests that it isn't events themselves that upset you, but the meanings you give to them. In CBT, you will learn to recognise how you think, behave and feel. You will then be encouraged to explore other ways of thinking and behaving that may be more useful.
CBT can be a helpful therapy for anxiety, depression, panic attacks, OCD, and other common mental health problems.
Making Sense of CBT explains more about who and what CBT is for, what happens during therapy sessions, and how to find a therapist.
Mindfulness meditation
Mindfulness is a way of paying attention to the present moment, using techniques like meditation, breathing and yoga. It helps us become more aware of our thoughts, feelings, and emotions, so that instead of being overwhelmed by them, we’re better able to manage them. Mindfulness can help with stress, anxiety, depression and addictive behaviours, and can even have a positive effect on physical problems like hypertension, heart disease and chronic pain.
Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) can help people learn how to manage their stress levels and improve their physical and mental health through techniques such as meditation, gentle yoga and mind-body exercises.
Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is designed to help people who are prone to recurring depression. It combines mindfulness techniques with elements from cognitive therapy to help break the negative thought patterns that are characteristic of recurrent depression.
Recovery from mental health problems
Recovery in a mental health context is different from the clinical recovery (cure) from physical illnesses. It means slightly different things to different people, but for most people with mental health difficulties, it involves being able to live a life that the person finds satisfying and meaningful, whether or not they continue to have symptoms. It is more that the person feels they have found a way to ‘recover their life’, rather than having ‘recovered from’ the illness as such.
This gives the person an opportunity to rebuild their life taking account of their illness and any continuing symptoms or difficulties. It includes regaining hope for the future and a sense of control over their own life, and may involve incorporating their experiences into a new sense of personal identity.
http://www.signpostuk.org/recovery/recovery-model
Support in the workplace
An important aid to recovery is the person being able to function as a full member of society, including continuing to have a role in the workplace that satisfies their abilities and plays to their strengths. Appropriate support from the line manager and colleagues is invaluable in the person being able to function fully in their role and in maintaining their sense of worth.
Non-judgemental listening is a much under-rated skill, but is highly valued by a person who needs to be heard. People with mental health difficulties are often reluctant to speak about their situation because of worrying that they will be misunderstood or judged.
Many people feel that they lack the skills to support colleagues and students with mental health difficulties. The Mental Health First Aid course organised by Staff Development is a two-day introductory course for all staff who wish to increase their knowledge, confidence and skills in discussing mental health and supporting colleagues and students with mental health difficulties.
The Mental Health Awareness wiki page provides an overview of common mental health issues that may be encountered.
To tell or not to tell?
If you feel that it might be beneficial to disclose your mental health condition, the following web page may help you decide how and when to talk to your line manager:
http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/your-organisation/support-workplace/telling-my-manager
If your mental health condition has a substantial adverse and long-term effect on your life, you are likely to be covered by the Equality Act and your department must make reasonable adjustments to enable you to perform your role. It may be necessary to have an Occupational Health assessment to advise on suitable adjustments.
http://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/legal-rights/disability-discrimination/ includes some useful general information.
You may also wish to explore the University Equalities and Diversity web pages: http://www.bath.ac.uk/equalities/
A note on Perfectionism
When having high standards crosses the line into perfectionism it can lead to difficulties and eventually seriously affect one's mental health. Working too long hours, trying to get everything nailed down to the nth degree, over-running deadlines because you can't quite finish a perfect job. How to overcome perfectionism indicates the symptoms of perfectionism and provides some tips and tools to overcome it.
Other resources
The MIND web site has a gateway into a wide range of supportive information pages.
Time to Change gateway into help and support services.
Rethink factsheet on Discrimination and Mental Health with reference to the Equality Act 2010
Free fact-sheets on a wide range of mental health-related issues from Rethink.
Time to Change resources for men.
1. McManus S., et al. (2009) Adult psychiatric morbidity in England, 2007: Results of a household survey. Leeds: NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care.