Mental wellbeing for school staff
5 steps to mental wellbeing
- Be active
- Connect
- Give
- Pay attention to the present moment
- Learn
5 habits of resilience
Self care
Does taking care of yourself feature in your to do list? We live in times where it's normal to skip lunch, communicate mainly through electronic media and miss out on fresh air and natural daylight. When getting things done takes priority over self-care, we start to run out of energy, and if this becomes the norm, it’s likely chronic illnesses will become the norm too.
Download the Self care worksheet
Glass half full
When people are negative in their approach and responses, it can have a draining effect on others and the atmosphere in meetings and across teams. This set of self-coaching questions enables you to gradually change your approach from pessimism and grumpiness, which can bring people down, to realistic optimism, which energises and uplifts people instead.
Download the Glass half full worksheet
Which flower are you?
If you get into the habit of checking in with yourself routinely, to see how you are and what you need, you are practising self-care through self-awareness. If you take action to make sure you address those needs, you are demonstrating self-care through self management. If you are not aware you are fading or if you know you are fading and take no responsibility for getting back to blossoming, very soon you’ll be wilting. Recognising your needs- physiological, emotional, mental, environmental, motivational and spiritual – reminds you to take care of yourself so that you are towards blossoming.
Download the 'Which flower are you?' worksheet
Know your triggers
If you know your triggers, you can watch out for them and manage them before they start to take over. Noticing is a start, allowing you to listen to and respect the messages the triggers are sending you and taking action to prevent things worsening.
Download the Know your triggers worksheet
Getting things in perspective
When you’re feeling tense, stressed, under pressure or in conflict, it’s very easy to become blinkered and to get things out of perspective. Then, your thoughts and feelings can start running away with you. You can develop the resilience habit of getting things in perspective by rising about the situation and asking yourself a few simple questions. This helps you to feel more balanced and patient, less stressed and calmer.
Other help, support services, and advice
- The NHS website has extensive support and information for your mental health.
- NHS Talking Therapies Hampshire (formerly italk) provides free treatment to people suffering from common mental health problems including depression, anxiety and stress.
- Mental Wellbeing Hampshire is a partnership of organisations working to support good mental health and wellbeing in our communities.
Health Assured Employee Support
Employee support is provided by Health Assured and is available to school staff where the school has a service level agreement (SLA) with the County Council.
My Wisdom EAP App
The My Wisdom EAP App is part of the Health Assured package/SLA. It provides a set of wellbeing tools and features available via Google Play store or App store, using a passcode.
Find this on your school intranet, or ask you Headteacher, Occupational Health or Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) contacts.