Mental Health Toolkit for Care Services
This toolkit provides step-by-step guidance for promoting good mental health at work.
Why manage mental health?
Approximately one in six employees in every organisation is having mental health issues at any one time. Although employers cannot, of course, control all the factors that affect mental health, they have a key role in managing the working conditions that can have an influence on stress and mental health, as well as ensuring people with mental ill health have the support they need and are not discriminated against or stigmatised.
This will help you:
- retain valuable, skilled, and experienced staff, saving time and costs
- reduce sickness absence and create a healthier workplace
- enhance safety and increase productivity
- demonstrate your commitment to and care for your
The link between stress and mental health
While stress is not a mental illness, many of the symptoms of stress and mild mental health conditions are similar. In addition, stress can exacerbate an existing mental health issue and affect a sufferer’s ability to cope, as it can with anyone.
What do you need to do as an employer?
- Draw up your Mental Health at Work policy. Ideally this should be part of an overall wellbeing strategy. It is important that this promotes an “organisation-wide” approach to mental health at work which involves employees and workplace representatives in identifying and minimising sources of stress.
- Ensure you also have a Stress at Work policy in Be guided by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) management standards approach and carry out appropriate workplace risk assessments. See the Employer Factsheet: Risk Assessment for Stress for help. Use the sample Workplace Risk Assessment.
- Use the Workplace Stress Training Presentation to train managers in the importance of managing stress in the workplace and how to spot the signs of
employees having psychological or emotional difficulties. Staff could also be appointed as mental health first aiders.
- Identify any work-related stress factors and make reasonable adjustments to support people, both while they are at work and upon returning to work after a sickness absence due to See How to Rehabilitate Staff following Sick Leave for Stress.
- Promote awareness of mental health issues and create a culture where employees feel they can talk about their Use the Employee Factsheet: Stress at Work as a first step to start a conversation or encourage completion of the Staff Wellbeing Questionnaire or a similar survey. See also How to Approach Staff who are Complaining about Stress.
- Ensure staff have access to flexible working opportunities which promote and support the adoption of a healthy work-life balance. Encourage healthy lifestyles by considering wellbeing initiatives, health awareness drives and Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs). See Staff Wellbeing at Work and the article, 35 ideas for workplace wellbeing initiatives.
Other useful feature articles:
- Mental health and the ageing population
- Navigating the changes of the Mental Health Act for people with learning disabilities
- The silent strain: a closer look at stress this awareness month
- 7 ways to support staff mental health at work in care
- Mental health discrimination at work
- How to manage migraines at work
- Mental health: making reasonable adjustments in the workplace
- Burnout — what is it and how should employers manage it?
- Supporting people with mental health conditions
- Supporting mental health all year round
Useful topics
The following topics offer in-depth advice and a variety of resources to help you manage mental health and stress.
Includes sections on Mental Health at Work Guidance and Staff Wellbeing at Work.
Includes sections on Stress at Work in Social Care, Procedure for Handling Stress-related Illness and Support for Workers Affected by Stress.
Includes sections on The Benefits of Occupational Health, Occupational Health Support for Existing Staff and Workplace Wellbeing.
Useful Q&As
Q: An employee has been diagnosed with a mental health illness. It has been suggested that we can develop with the employee a Wellness and Recovery Action Plan to assist them at work. What is this?
Q: How can I help an employee who is experiencing poor mental health by making adjustments?
Q: Is there a way to measure stress levels in our social care workers in a relevant, approved and meaningful way so that we can see how they are doing from time-to-time?
Q: How can we address health and wellbeing challenges specific to our domiciliary care workforce?
Q: As an adult social care employer, do I have legal obligations regarding managing stress in the workplace?
Q: How do I tell the difference between a stressed employee and one suffering from anxiety or depression, which may become a mental health issue?
Q: Is building staff resilience my responsibility as a social care employer, and how do I do this in our workplace where a couple of staff are off with stress?
Q: I am concerned about the effect that stress can have on our staff and I would like to train my line managers to spot the symptoms. What procedures and training should I put in place to reduce the risk of my employees taking time off with stress-related illnesses?
Health Assured
If you need help on mental health and wellbeing issues, Health Assured offers the most comprehensive employee assistance programme (EAP) available today. Health Assured high quality counselling and specialist work-life support is delivered through an in-house team of 60 BACP accredited counsellors, supported by a network of thousands of active counsellors. Their specialist service supports nine million people throughout the UK, handling over 300,000 calls a year.
See www.healthassured.org for more information.
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