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Supporting Your Mental Health and Wellbeing
Mental health, for most people, is something that fluctuates throughout their life, in fact 1 in 6 people in England report experiencing a common mental health problem, such as anxiety and depression in any given week.* A degree of stigma still exists around mental ill health and learners in the NHS, like anyone else, may often be scared or reluctant to to talk about any mental health problems they may be having.
It is important that those experiencing mental ill health know they can talk about it and receive help if they need it. Those in a position of authority should also know what is required of them and how they can help if they are approached by someone who is experiencing mental ill health.
The NHS Staff and Learners Mental Wellbeing Commission in February 2019 discussed a series of recommendations. One of the recommendations was that ‘Educational and clinical supervisors within NHS provider organisations should be given clear guidance on their local support for postgraduate learners with mental distress.’
Benefits:
Supporting learners’ and staff mental wellbeing is a top priority for the NHS and Health Education England has put in place a suite of materials which will support a necessary long- term strategy for protecting and maintaining the physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing of the workforce.
The strategy, while devised before COVID 19, will be critical to ensuring the sustained health and capacity of the NHS workforce as they respond to the pandemic and beyond. It may take some time for learners and staff to realise the impact of the crisis on their mental wellbeing.
The aim of these resources is to help identify and provide support to learners’ struggling with their mental health and may be at risk of burnout, work performance issues and suicide. These resources will also help to address a potential gap in the training of clinical/educational supervisors who may not have much experience or feel confident in dealing with these sensitive issues.
Animated Films
1. NHS Learners: Speaking about mental health at work
2. Supervisors & Line Managers: Supporting learners’ mental health at work.