Mental health guidance

This video gives general and practical guidance about mental health and doesn't include targeted or personalised health or medical advice.

What is mental health?

Imagine an 8-year-old asks you this.

What would you say?

Talking about depression or anxiety won't work.

Those are symptoms of poor mental health.

You could use the World Health Organization's definition of good mental health.

A state of well-being in which an individual realizes their own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to contribute to their community.

Then again, can you imagine an eight-year-old sticking around for all that?

Perhaps the simplest description is the best.

Like, it's the way we think and feel, and how that affects the way we live.

Because when we understand mental health on a basic level, we're better equipped to manage it.

After all, poor mental health can be a common part of life.

We've all heard that one in four of us will experience poor mental health at some point.

But this is just based on the people who've spoken up.

Many people hide poor mental health, meaning the number could be much higher.

So what can we do to help?

Step one,

is to learn how to spot poor mental health in ourselves and others.

And to do this, we need to know the signs.

Signs like a changing mood, feeling low, anxious or irritable, struggling with everyday things like cooking or washing, sleeping less or too much, being suspicious, paranoid or withdrawn, struggling to concentrate or remember things, or suicidal thoughts.

Another way to spot poor mental health is to just trust your gut whenever something seems unusual.

If we look out for signs like these, we can be more prepared for poor mental health in our friends, colleagues and even ourselves, whether we're 8 or 80.

If you want to get a more in-depth understanding of mental health, watch the module 2 video on stigma.

If you have questions about a mental health condition, talk to a doctor or qualified mental health care professional.

Mental health stigma.

Picture this, it's Friday and someone in your team is off because of poor mental health.

You and your colleagues rally around them, picking up the workload and being supportive.

Then, over the weekend you see a picture of them on social media.

They're out with friends, smiling and looking like everything's fine.

How would you feel?

Would you mention the picture to your colleagues?

And what would you say if someone mentioned it to you?

There's a lot of misinformation out there about mental health and many of us just don't understand it as well as we could.

This leads to damaging stigma and makes life harder for people experiencing poor mental health.

But a good way to tackle misinformation is to widen our perspective.

So how can we do this?

We can start by educating ourselves by reading about mental health and discussing it with others.

We should also look at our own attitudes.

How do we think about mental health now, and how might this affect how we treat people with poor mental health?

And finally, we should try to approach mental health the way we approach physical health, by understanding its importance, being sensitive to people who struggle, and giving it the same care and attention.

So now picture this.

You see the same photo as before,

But this time more about mental health stigma.

Would the picture have the same effect?

Or would you understand that the picture doesn't tell the whole story?

When we widen our perspective, we build up a much more understanding image of mental health, making us much better at supporting our friends and colleagues.

For more points of view, watch the module 3 video about how mental health affects thoughts, beliefs and feelings.

This video gives general and practical guidance about mental health and doesn't include targeted or personalised health or medical advice.

Thoughts, beliefs and feelings.

Imagine this, you're chatting with your manager and they say, I'd like to catch up later.

Would you think, I wonder what that's about?

Or, I hope I haven't missed a deadline.

But what do you think, did I do something wrong?

Or did I upset someone?

We're more likely to interpret something negatively if our mental health is in a poor space.

We can find all sorts of thoughts, beliefs and feelings descending upon us, out of nowhere, and that's natural.

I can't cope.

Best to avoid that difficult situation.

If I'm not certain it will go well, it'll go badly.

People will judge me if I ask for help.

These thoughts are one of the biggest barriers to finding help with poor mental health.

But there are people you can turn to for help.

You could ask your manager for support.

After all, that's what they're there for.

But if this makes you feel uncomfortable, there are always other people you can turn to.

Like a friend, colleague, or your workplace might have an employee assistance program.

We can all help our friends and colleagues with their mental health by being proactive.

It can be as simple as sitting down with a friend or co-worker who might be struggling and saying, is there anything I can do to make your week a bit easier?

Because when we feel seen and supported, we're much more likely to ask for help when we need it.

Watch the module 4 video for more ways to support someone with their mental health.

If you have questions about a mental health condition,

Talk to a doctor or qualified mental health care professional.

This video gives general and practical guidance about mental health and doesn't include targeted or personalised health or medical advice.

What can you do to support?

Supporting someone with their mental health can be as simple as learning some easy do's and don'ts.

Firstly, listen.

Just listen.

Be patient and try not to react negatively, but don't try to jolly them up.

or make it light-hearted.

Ask open questions.

What's been happening?

How are you feeling?

And how is this affecting you?

But don't try to empathise by saying things like, I know how you feel or my brother had the same thing.

This might not feel like you're supporting them and can just push them further away.

It's okay to ask them if they feel safe.

If they don't feel safe, or if you think a situation is becoming a crisis, you'll need to take action.

If they're in immediate danger and won't agree to getting help, you'll need to call in some emergency support or help them book an appointment with their GP.

If they don't want you to contact anyone, tell them you can't keep the information to yourself and call 111.

or the Samaritans on 116123 if you're in the Isle of Man or Channel Islands.

And don't agree to keep any secrets for them.

But if they do feel safe and need support, just be there.

They may need a shoulder to cry on.

And if they do cry, don't tell them to stop.


Crying is okay.

You can talk about making a plan for if things get worse.

like who to speak to and how to get help.

Just don't rush them to take action.

If they're in a vulnerable situation, they're probably not ready to make informed decisions.

Try to show an interest in their feelings and beliefs.

Some of their thoughts might seem irrational to you, but don't confirm or deny them.

Just listen.

Don't pressure them into trying to think clearly at a difficult time.

Once they've said all they want to say, you can look for ways forward together.

You can establish if they want to tell their friends or workplace and what they might like to say.

And try to move things forward by thinking about whether there are any support services in the workplace or local area you can point them to.

Just don't end up trying to solve their problems yourself.

And finally,

Make sure you talk to somebody you feel comfortable with if the conversation has affected your own well-being.

And don't be afraid to talk about mental health with more people in and out of work.

This is the end of our mental health awareness modules.

You can recap the guidance in this module with a supporting document.

If you have any questions about a mental health condition, talk to a doctor or a qualified mental health care professional.

Always-on culture.

We live in an always-on culture, but we're not all experts at multitasking.

We need to self-regulate our habits if we want to manage our stress levels.

For example, have you ever had to turn the car radio down so you can find where you're going?

Or got your phone out to check the time and instead checked all your socials, read an article, messaged a friend and put your phone away?

before realising you still don't know what time it is.

We've all done it, but the one common thing is technology.

It's everywhere.

And when we use it too much, we end up living an always-on life.

Think about it.

We used to live at home and work at work.

We used to know the difference between socialising and having alone time.

But now the lines are blurred.

We're increasingly able to do what we want, when we want.

So we often try to do everything.

Like video chatting with colleagues around the country, while live editing an online document, and moving money from one bank account to another.

To pay for the flight to Edinburgh opening that 13th browser tab.

Or was it the next tab over?

Why is that tab shouting at me?

Oh, the video call.

Sound familiar?

It can be hard enough being always on at work from 9 to 5, but when we work from home, the boundaries are completely removed.

Many of us work beyond our hours and skip breaks because we think we have to.

It becomes all too easy to feel like we need to be permanently visible to our manager, and to worry that if we don't respond to every message at any time of the day, we're not doing enough.

And even when we manage to turn our work lives off, we're still always on.

to other things.

As we probably know, this isn't healthy.

But now that we know more about always-on culture, we can learn some coping mechanisms by watching module 2.

Coping mechanisms.

Here's a challenge.

Try to watch this whole video without looking at another tab or app or opening a notification.

It can be harder than it sounds, even for just two minutes.

Because when we're always on, we're always being interrupted and distracted, making it tougher than ever to just focus on the task at hand.

Luckily,

We all have what it takes to be more in the moment.

It's called being mindful, paying attention on purpose, being present in the moment, non-judgmentally.

In fact, back before we were always on, we practiced mindfulness every day.

We just didn't know it.

We kept our work life and home life separate.

We watched TV without scrolling through our phones and devoted ourselves to one activity at a time.

So if we want to be more resilient to the always on culture, we need to free ourselves up to live in the moment, just a bit more, like we used to.

There's no need to meditate or do yoga, unless you would like to.

It's more about making some small changes, to the way we use phones, computers and all kinds of technology.

Turning off notifications on your phone, setting our inboxes to prioritize the most important emails, pausing the podcast,

and listening to wordless music while we're working.

Setting a timer for each task to give us a manageable period of focus.

Putting social media out of reach by removing the apps or setting a daily usage limit.

Cutting back on working longer hours by going for a walk in place of the old commute.

And putting the laptop away at the end of the day.

These are simple steps towards being more mindful and less distracted.

And if you've made it through this whole video without checking your phone, you're on your way already.

Watch our module 3 video for more techniques.

Regaining our work-life balance.

How can we find the right balance between work and life?

A good way to start is by finding out what really matters to us right now.

How would you arrange these three priorities?

Which is the most important to you?

A lot of us might like to think we put health and family first.

But in reality, we let work and money dominate our time and thoughts.

So how can we better protect the precious time we have to be with our families, hang out with our friends, or just sit and daydream?

One of the best ways to rebalance our lives is to get better at knowing what to say yes to and what to say no to.

It sounds simple, but if it was, we wouldn't find ourselves always taking on more work than is good for us.

So here's how to keep things positive.

whether you want to say yes or no.

Lay the foundations.

If you're with someone who might want to give you a new task or an extra shift, pre-empt it by mentioning your priorities and how much work you already have on.

Give it some thought.

Instead of saying no on the spot, tell them you'll think about it.

Then perhaps you can change your priorities to suit both of you.

Or if you still want to say no,

You can say something like, I've thought it over and checked my commitments and I can't do this right now.

Give reasons.

Say why you can't take on more work, so they better understand and feel more involved in the decision.

Keep your options open.

If it sounds like something you may be able to say yes to at a later date, you could say something like, it sounds interesting, but I just don't have the time right now.

If it can wait,

Could you check back with me next week?

If we can find the right balance between saying yes and no, we can find the right balance between work and life.

This is the end of our Always On culture modules.

You can explore mental health further by watching our videos about mental health awareness and resilience.