Category Archives: Mental Health Advice

Mental Health Awareness Week 2020 is a chance for the UK to focus on mental health.

This year’s theme is kindness, with the week running from 18 – 24 May 2020.

The focus on kindness is a response to the coronavirus outbreak, which is having a big impact on people’s mental health. Being kind can significantly improve our physical and emotional wellbeing – whether we are giving or receiving it. There have even been scientific studies into the effects of kindness, showing that acts of kindness help your immune system, reduces stress, gives you energy and are good for your heart! The power of being kind goes even further, it has been proven to slow ageing, improve relationships and it’s contagious!

Some people have mental health conditions like depression or anxiety, which means they have feelings that won’t go away and which start to really affect day-to-day life.

We would like to use Mental Health Awareness Week to celebrate the thousands of acts of kindness that are so important to our mental health. Have you carried out any acts of kindness recently? Here at WHSS we gave chocolates to a care home. Let us know in the comments below on Twitter and LinkedIn.

If you’re worried about mental health, wellbeing, or if you have any questions, speak to a friend, relative or your GP.

Contact us to offer guidance at this time.

What is seasonal affective disorder?

It is more than the “winter blues” or a general feeling of sadness — it’s a major depressive disorder brought about by the lengthening periods of darkness.

It causes lethargy, low energy, difficulty waking up in the mornings and decreased concentration. It’s an issue that can have drastic effects on productivity in the winter months.

How common is seasonal affective disorder?

That is dependent on a variety of factors. But, in the UK and Ireland, it is thought to affect as many as one in three people. It’s likely someone you know in the workplace is beginning to struggle with it.

What are the symptoms of seasonal affective disorder?

Broadly, SAD has the same outward signs as depression:

•persistent low mood
•loss of pleasure or interest in normal everyday activities
•irritability
•feelings of despair, guilt and worthlessness
•low self-esteem
•feeling stressed or anxious
•reduced sex drive
•becoming less sociable.

There are some SAD-specific signs, though, as follows.

•feeling less active than normal
•lethargy and sleepiness throughout the day
•difficulty concentrating
•an increased appetite, particularly for carbohydrates, which can cause weight gain.

What are the risk factors for seasonal affective disorder?

There are some common, easily recognisable risk factors for seasonal affective disorder.

•Women are more likely to suffer from SAD — in fact, they are four times more likely to suffer than men.
•It is more common in everyone the further you get from the equator; the lower hours of sunlight are a big contributor.
•People with a family history of depression are more likely to develop SAD.
•You are more likely to first develop the disorder in younger life. It has even been reported in children.

The most significant and obvious difference between depression and seasonal affective disorder is that SAD is linked to the changing seasons, whereas depression is year-round.

Luckily there are ways to help with SAD that don’t work with “ordinary” depression.

How to help with seasonal effective disorder

There are some quick and easy ways to make the workplace more manageable for people who suffer from serious winter depression.

•Provide more light: offices can become rather dark and dreary when the sun starts setting earlier. Some employees may be seated at desks or in cubicles situated far from the nearest source of natural light. Try rearranging your floor plan to maximise the natural light available and consider moving people suffering from SAD closer to windows.

•Provide even more light: a lot of people suffering from SAD benefit greatly from a SAD lamp or light box, a form of light therapy that uses fluorescent lights to simulate the natural sun.

•Encourage more outdoor time: employees should be taking lunch away from their desks in all offices — it helps clear the mind and means people are ready to attack the afternoon’s tasks afresh. Encourage your staff to go further than the kitchen. Assuming the winter weather isn’t too harsh, lunchtime can be well spent going for a quick walk around the block. It’s about getting as much sunlight and positivity into the workday as possible. Consider short outdoor meetings and coffee runs.

•Help out with health: SAD can wreak havoc on the appetite, causing weight gain, which can make the associated depression harder to deal with. Provide healthier snacking options and hot drink options, such as diet drinks and soups and herbal teas.

Contact us to discuss this further.

There are serious health effects associated with the misuse of drugs including heart disease, HIV and Hepatitis C, psychological illnesses and a greater risk of accidents, to mention just a few. Understanding of the effects of drugs is an important element in the process of accepting that “social” drug users pose a health and safety risk to any organisation.

The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 lists the drugs that are subject to control and classifies them in three categories according to their relative harmfulness when abused, as follows.

Stress is an unfortunate but often unavoidable side effect of our busy lives. Having on-hand methods for managing stress is a good way to combat its physical, mental, and emotional impact. How stressful are big life events at work such as starting a new job, being fired, commuting delays, taking a break from work or being promoted?

This question has been answered by means of survey on stress in modern Britain by the Physiological Society, said to be Europe’s largest network of physiologists.

In partnership with the polling firm You Gov, it surveyed 2000 British adults and asked them to rate how stressful they find (or imagine they would find) various different life events.

Ranked Events

The following is a rundown of the top 18 ranked stressful events, (the number that follows is the average score out of 10 points assigned to each work or life event as an indication of how stressful the situation is).

1. Death of spouse/relative/friend (9.43)
2. Imprisonment (9.15)
3. Flood/fire damaging your home (8.89)
4. Being seriously ill (8.52)
5. Being fired (8.47)
6. Separation/divorce (8.47)
7. Identity theft (8.16)
8. Unexpected money problems (7.39)
9. Starting a new job (6.54)
10. Planning a wedding (6.51)
11. Arrival of first child (6.06)
12. Commute delays (5.94)
13. Terrorist threats (5.84)
14. Losing smartphone (5.79)
15. Moving to bigger house (5.77)
16. Brexit (4.23)
17. Going on holiday (3.99)
18. Promotion/success at work (3.78)

Interestingly, for every event, the reported stress experienced by men was lower than that by women. The average difference was 0.56 points.

The biggest difference was in the stress caused by the threat of terrorism, which was 1.25 points higher for women. The smallest difference was for the arrival of a first child — a life-changing event for either sex.

As I am planning my own wedding it is interesting to see that this category falls at number 10. As the day gets nearer (a week to go) I personally feel that the last couple of months has been the most stressful of my life and I have experienced a few from the 18 stressful events!

If you require guidance with stress in the workplace, please contact us.

Helpful apps – Head space

Blog – Strength to strength blog