Resources to help support you this stress-awareness month

, ,
“We know that to improve the health of our population it’s incredibly important our staff are looked after too, we are committed to helping staff improve their health and wellbeing.”

-Jade Jenkins, Health and Wellbeing Project Manager at Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership.

The month of April is already upon us and brings with it the very topical Stress Awareness Month. Millions around the UK are experiencing high levels of stress and it is damaging our health in more ways than one. Did you know that stress is a significant contributing factor to a wide range of physical and mental health problems? Some of these problems include heart disease, problems with our immune system, insomnia and digestive problems and depression and anxiety to name a few.

Health and care workers particularly have been under extraordinary pressure facing unprecedented challenges: working in unfamiliar environments, with reduced staffing levels, and learning new skills, not to mention the added worry of their own family’s health and wellbeing.  Alongside this, we know people are facing increasing levels of stress outside of the workplace for a number of reasons such as increased living costs, fear and worry about the devastating conflict in Ukraine and a whole range of other factors.

The good news is there are things you can do to alleviate your stress. As well as your line manager there are fantastic teams in the workplace who can help including Occupational Health, Health and Wellbeing Teams, Wellbeing Champions and much more. We understand it can sometimes be difficult to know where to look for support so here are some examples of what’s available to all health, care and emergency service staff living and working in Humber and North Yorkshire:

  • Sleep focused webinars delivered by The Sleep School cover everything from techniques to help you wind down/ fall asleep and wake up refreshed to psychological flexibility sessions providing you with evidence-based tips to effectively manage stress.
  • Stress/ Trauma Recovery workshops, facilitated by trauma-integrated therapists and experts in their fields of mental health recovery. A number of sessions on a variety of different topics will be running until June.
  • A financial wellbeing workshop is taking place in May- the session will discuss budgeting, saving, preparing for retirement, and where to get help with your finances.
  • Menopause workshops where participants will gain confidence in having supportive conversations around menopause and how to get the right support together including the important role a partner, team or family member can play in supporting someone through menopause.
  • Looking after you too (for Primary Care and CCG colleagues)- We recognise that our frontline primary care colleagues, both clinical and non-clinical, are continuing to work hard caring for their patients. Individual coaching is available with a skilled and experienced coach who will work with you to discuss any area of your wellbeing that you would like to address. They will listen, ask questions and support you to develop practical strategies to cope with your situation and stay well. Click here for more information.

There are also some great self-help tips on the Stress Management Society website. You can book on to the workshops listed above by visiting www.bookwhen.com/hcv.

For 1-to-1 support with your mental health and any emotional difficulties you may be experiencing and which you feel you need some help with, whether they are work-related or not- please contact the Resilience Hub by emailing tewv.hcv-resiliencehub@nhs.net or by calling 03300 022 044.

For anything else please contact your organisational health and wellbeing team or hcv.wellbeing@nhs.net, we would like to hear what works for you and any tips you might want to share with others.

Vision for Volunteering

, ,
What is the Vision for Volunteering?

It is a 10 year plan that aims to make volunteering across England accessible and valuable to all. The plan will include short, medium and long term goals to promote and strengthen the volunteer sector.

What will the plan cover?

Over the last six months a series of workshops and consultations have been held with volunteer managers, coordinators, policy makers, and volunteers to find out what the Vision or plan needs to include, what the barriers are, and how they can be removed.

The workshops focussed on volunteering across seven themes:

1.     Healthy ageing

2.     Climate emergency

3.     Resilient communities

4.     Employment and skills

5.     Young people leading change

6.     Sport and physical activity

7.     Health and wellbeing

A more detailed summary of the seven areas can be found here.

How will the vision impact me?

The aim for the vision is that across England volunteering will be more inclusive, accessible and valuable. Some of the actions and recommendations can be enacted short term others will take longer to embed.

Whilst some of the actions will be targeted at grant giving organisations, service commissioners, public and private sector partners the majority of recommendations will be for voluntary groups to implement.

The initial recommendations clearly show that there is an expectation that there will be a minimum standard of best practice that all volunteering involving organisations across England will be encouraged to adopt. With clear links to commissioning and funding agreements. If organisations and groups that involve volunteers with their services want to continue to access funding and be recognised as providing a welcoming positive volunteering experience; then they will need to carefully consider how to implement any recommendations from the vision.

The final Vision for Volunteering across England for the next 10 years will be released in May 2022.

Big boys don’t cry – why wellbeing is an important conversation to have among men

, ,

Hi, I’m Michael, and I want to share with you my experience with my own mental health and wellbeing. It’s often said that men struggle most to talk about their feelings, often it’s a feeling of embarrassment that causes this.

Big boys don’t cry so they say.  I may be an exception, as it has not been a feeling of embarrassment necessarily that has prevented me from talking about my mental health but more that I often found it boring. This is likely to be down to the fact that I consider myself to be a problem solver and when having feelings that affected my general mood, it was frustrating to not be able to do anything about it.

I am someone who was initially diagnosed with depression in the late nineties. At this time the stigma around mental health often prevented you from talking about the issue, not through embarrassment for me, just simply because of people’s lack of understanding of what this meant.  I wasn’t weak, just ill but without the tools available to help me, it was difficult to understand what was going on.

Nearly twenty years later I was again diagnosed, but after a couple of years of not seeing any improvement from taking medication, I was referred for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and this transformed my life in terms of how I think of and deal with my mental health.

I was always aware there were issues to address but often thought it was maybe just that I was wired wrong, or at least just different to others.

What CBT taught me was that that wasn’t the case and helped me to identify the root cause of issues and techniques and how to deal with them. Importantly it helped me identify these myself and come up with my own solutions. It solved the issue of not wanting to talk about an issue for fear of not being able to find a solution.

The skills I have learned mean now that I am far more aware of both my mental and physical wellbeing. I keep an eye out for the triggers that may affect my mood but importantly realise that I will still have some not so good days but now have far more good days. On those days when things are not at their best, I reflect on the things that do make the good days good.  This could be going out for a walk, a bike ride, or if I’ve got the house to myself, watching Zulu for the gazillionth time. Sometimes it is just as simple as stroking the cat or some basic breathing exercises. I have a list of ten things that make me feel better, which is printed and hung on a wall at home. It acts as a great reminder for me if I’m not quite 100%.

My own experiences have made me aware that there are times when we all need a bit of a helping hand.  This has led to me taking on the role of Wellbeing Champion for Community First Yorkshire. The title could be misleading as rather than me being a champion in terms of being the best, it is about championing the well-being cause. It is all about sharing useful hints and tips with my colleagues and helping them to recognise when to take a break from things and have a bit of time out. The intention is to, where possible, also have a bit of fun along the way. I want to develop the role so that it helps to encourage an open and honest culture through the organisation so that people feel comfortable talking about their own wellbeing.  There are boundaries with the role though, and what it is not is to replace the role a line manager would when a colleague needs help.  It is also about knowing where to signpost people for specialist help where needed and not to try and act as a counsellor.

Everyone is individual and thinks differently but the key for me to mental wellbeing is that this is as important as physical wellbeing. Everyone does have spells where they are not feeling at their best but in the majority of cases, with a bit of help and guidance, there are things we can do to help ourselves.

I hope you haven’t found this as boring as I probably would have done 20 years ago.

The benefits of promoting wellbeing within an organisation.

, ,

Wellbeing is an important aspect of everyone’s lives, but when it comes to the workplace, what is being done to help support individuals? Our Chief Executive, Jane Colthup, discusses what wellbeing means to her personally and how she supports this from an organisational perspective:

For me, wellbeing is essential in the workplace. I want our people to feel valued. The team are pivotal to me, not only as a resource for the business but to me personally. We are a conscientious and ethical employer and wellbeing is part of that principle. I don’t just see improving wellbeing as a tick-box exercise, it’s really important and I care hugely about it. It’s so important that I push myself to apply it to my own life and behaviours.

Self-care isn’t selfish

For me, my wellbeing hinges on four main areas – sleep, hydration, exercise, diet. If I don’t get enough of any of these, I suffer and don’t perform at my best. I get so much from taking 45 minutes out each day to do some form of exercise. I feel better, my mental clarity is lifted and physically I feel energised too, even when I’m initially too exhausted to feel much like doing anything. I know if I make myself do it, I reap dividends afterwards. There’s nothing like the buzz of endorphins shooting around your body to make you feel great again.

I also find it really important to get outside at the weekend; a walk in the countryside to connect with nature and see the bigger picture does wonders for my wellbeing. I’ve got a dog who loves to run around and will usually embarrass me by disappearing somewhere! But it’s getting out and seeing amazing views that help me. We’re so blessed in Yorkshire to have all of that on our doorstep and that, for me, is a great stress-buster.

But, everyone’s different and I think it’s important to recognise that some people need isolation in order to recharge themselves, whereas others need to socialise to feel better. A team full of different people in an organisation aren’t all going to need the same thing.

Wellbeing at work

At Community First Yorkshire we have a few things in place to encourage prioritising wellbeing amongst our team.

We have created the position of Wellbeing Champion within our team. A Wellbeing Champion is someone who wants to enhance the wellbeing culture within their organisation, who have the skills and confidence to raise awareness of mental health and well-being needs within their employment through open conversation and collectively share a vision to highlight and support the well-being needs of their wider team.

Another thing we as an organisation do to improve wellbeing is host ‘tea-breaks’ for our team members. This was all our Head of Finance’s brainchild and means half an hour is scheduled in an online meeting room which anyone can join. It’s a space to meet and socialise with the team. Whoever’s hosting might throw in a few tricky pub quiz questions to keep everyone on their toes but it’s more about providing a space for people to put their work worries to the back of their minds and have a breather.

We’ve all got to take responsibility for our own wellbeing; it’s not just a corporate thing. We owe it to ourselves in terms of having better health. People will feel so much happier within themselves if they put their wellbeing first. As an organisation we need to actively support our people’s wellbeing, whether that is by allowing more flexibility in the workday for people to get outside for a lunchtime walk, or encouraging team members to take holidays regularly through the year – it’s critical for everyone to get regular breaks.

An organisation’s responsibility towards the wellbeing of its people also involves making sure that there are line-managers or senior members of the team who can be approached if anyone is struggling. We work hard to foster strong relationships so that no one feels they have to suffer with anything alone in the workplace. I’m keen to promote an ‘open door policy’ so everyone feels able to speak to any of the senior team about anything bothering them.

An organisation can’t force someone to help themselves, but it can provide an environment where self-care isn’t seen as selfish. It’s an essential investment in the whole person we bring to our work.

Historically, at Community First Yorkshire, we’ve organised team-building exercises linked to volunteering. Research has shown that volunteering can help improve a person’s wellbeing. Not only does this improve our own wellbeing and strengthen the bonds within our team, but we are also serving the community at the same time. It really is win-win.

Supporting rural wellbeing

A large part of the work we do as a charity is to support rural communities. Community wellbeing is essential, especially for those who do not have a local community in their immediate surroundings. People who live on farms or up in the dales, don’t have the same kind of support network as those who live in towns and villages. In our communities, we know that social connection is crucial to improving wellbeing. People who feel more socially connected are less likely to feel lonely which we know is directly linked to health and wellbeing.

As an organisation, we’re constantly looking for new ways of giving people who are isolated real methods of social connection. This could be by making village halls more accessible as centres of local communities or connecting people digitally through a buddying network. Social connections don’t have to be face to face, sometimes just having someone to talk to can help improve wellbeing.

These are the things we need to be thinking about in our rural communities, it’s so important to get the balance of our communities right, so everyone feels they have a valued, worthwhile place in society.

There are lots of support resources out there for people wanting to put their own self-care and wellbeing first. We have collated online and local resources in our VCSE Wellbeing Hub Toolkit for you to access no matter where you are on your wellbeing journey, click here to find out more.