Looking After Your Mental Health Whilst Working During The COVID-19 Pandemic – Care First Webinar 10th May 2021

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During the COVID-19 Pandemic many of us have had to either work from home, or adhere to social distancing guidelines and wear personal protective equipment to protect us and our colleagues from the virus. When our working routine is affected with change it can bring a whole new range of challenges that you wouldn’t necessarily have had when working your normal routine before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. It may be now that restrictions are starting to ease that the way we work may start to change again. Looking after your mental wellbeing has never been more important.

Below are a number of tips to help you look after your mental wellbeing while working during the COVID-19 pandemic:

Look at what support is available to you

Have a look to see what support is available to you through your work place. For example if you are reading this then you more than likely have access to the Care first Employee Assistance Programme through your employer. Visit the Care first Lifestyle site to find out more about the support you have access to and speak with HR to find out about any other support that may be available to you through your employer.

Use your annual leave effectively

It is important to take annual leave to give yourself a chance to recharge and relax. Spreading your annual leave out throughout the year can help by giving you regular breaks from work as well as giving yourself something to look forward to.

Look after your general wellbeing

This may seem like an obvious one, if you’re working longer and later, you then roll out of bed in the morning and start again. This is not good for your routine or your wellbeing. If you’re not getting enough sleep then it’s no surprise you’re not feeling great. Try to stay healthy and active as much as possible, this will help you to keep motivated at work.

Be aware of your emotions

This isn’t such an obvious one. Try and be aware of the emotions you’re feeling around certain tasks. Your lack of motivation may be coming from your anxiety around a particularly challenging or lengthy task. Once you recognise this, try to accept the fact you’re going to have to face it sooner or later. By doing this it’ll make starting on a task less stressful, but also remind yourself as you go how good you’ll feel once it’s finally done!

Understand that change happens

Things will always be changing, whether that’s the current COVID-19 restrictions, or things in general life once we return to a sense of normality. By accepting that it happens it can make it easier to cope with, whereas trying to avoid change only inspires anxiety when it does happen.

Make simple changes

Making simple changes can help you to manage more effectively, but like anything else, we need to practice; so think
of some simple steps which would help and support your mental health, we have outlined some below to consider –

  • Talk about your feelings
  • Keep active
  • Eat well
  • Drink sensibly
  • Keep in touch
  • Ask for help
  • Take a break
  • Do something you’re good at
  • Accept who you are
  • Care for others

More Information

If you feel you may need some support, you can contact Care first. Care first is a leading provider of confidential professional counselling, information and advice services. All employees are eligible to use Care first and our services include; telephone counselling, information services and online support. Call Care first on the Freephone number provided by your organisation and you can speak to a professional in confidence.

If you would like to view the Webinar on ‘Looking after your mental health whilst working during the COVID-19 pandemic’ this is being delivered live on Monday 10th May at 12pm, please use the following link to register for this session –

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5814617025043021579

If you are unable to join the webinar live, a recording of the session can be accessed using the same link above after the webinar has taken place.

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