Mental Health in the Workplace | Mental Health Wellness Tips

 hello world my name is shelly and today  we're going to talk about addressing mental   health in the workplace Our lives  were turned absolutely upside down   because of COVID-19 and it has affected everyone  around the world. Whether you know it or not,

you are most likely working with people who  are affected by mental health disorders. It is imperative that we address  this issue in the workplace   to ensure that everyone understands their options  for treatment. Treating mental health issues is.

Mental Health Wellness Tips List:

1. Treating mental health issues
2. Learning about Mental Health Disorders
3. Substance Abuse
4. Address in Private
5. Don't force them into a conversation
6. Just let them talk

Treating mental health issues:

important because people perform their best when  their minds are clear and they are calm and happy. One technique I began using recently was  to implement a mental health check at the   beginning of every meeting with my colleagues and  clients. You would be surprised at how many people

opened up and had many frank  discussions about mental health. I learned so much more about the lives  of the people I worked with and we became   very close. This also helped us to solidify  our team which led to higher productivity.

Learning about Mental Health Disorders:

If you want to support mental health in  the workplace, it is important to learn   about mental health disorders so that you  can spot the symptoms. Some of the common   symptoms include appearing tired all the time,  a lack of productivity, and substance abuse.

When co-workers encounter this in  the workplace, it is easy to judge   the person and think that they are either  unhappy with their job or just plain lazy. While this may be the case in some  scenarios, other times the person may   be in a mental health crisis and the last  thing that they need is trouble at work.

Substance Abuse:

Many people engage in substance abuse to  self-medicate their problems away. They   may experience outbursts of emotion  (usually extreme sadness or anger),   a lack of caring about their appearance,  or frequent absenteeism. Many people who   self-medicate do so because they may not  know that they have a mental health disorder.

While it is not your job to make them see that  they do have a mental disorder, you should   make them aware that help is available  if they need it without overstepping. You can do this by avoiding attempting to  diagnose them and getting mad when they do not   seek treatment. You cannot control people and they  need to forge their own path in life. One of the.

Address in Private:

hardest things you will ever do is watch someone  destroy themselves with substance abuse. Just   understand that you have no control over their  actions but you can control how you react to them. If you want to help support a colleague  who is experiencing a mental health issue,   you can begin addressing mental health in the  workplace in a private setting such as over lunch   with just the two of you. You wouldn’t want to  address it in a public setting or even in earshot

of other colleagues because this does not preserve  the privacy of the person affected by mental   illness. You should let them know that you have  empathy for their situation and that you are there   if they ever want to talk. You can even talk about  yourself and your own experiences with mental   illness in order to get them to open up. But don’t  force the conversation, if they don’t want to talk.

Don't force them into a conversation:

about it that is their decision. If they do open  up, stop talking immediately and let them talk

Just let them talk:

You should just listen and not offer advice beyond  telling them what their treatment options are. I have had the pleasure of working with many  colleagues who supported my mental illnesses   over the years. They really helped me to see that  I wasn’t thinking clearly and that I needed help. I remember at one point, I had a very pessimistic  view of everything and a project manager I worked   with would rephrase my statements into something  positive. This is actually a technique that is   used in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) which  is a treatment for many mental health disorders.

I have bipolar disorder and  generalized anxiety disorder   which I ignored for 17 years. I know all too well the mental   gymnastics that people go through to reject  the notion that they have a mental health   disorder. I hope that more organizations  address mental health in the workplace   which will help to reduce or hopefully remove  the negative stigma for mental health issues. You can learn more about Mental Health  Awareness in my Pluralsight course,