At Oliver & Co Solicitors, we recognise and support mental health awareness week, which is due to take place from 15 May – 21 May 2023. This year’s focus is anxiety.
Anxiety is something that will affect all of us during the course of our lifetime, and it is when those feelings of anxiety become unable to manage that it becomes a problem.
To a certain degree, anxiety can be helpful, as it can improve your focus or give you that drive to complete an urgent task. However, if you regularly experience feelings of anxiety that interfere with your daily life, this may indicate that it is time to speak to a medical professional to bring that anxiety under control.
It is important to remember that anxiety can be managed and reduced to a tolerable level through medication and/or support from a trained counsellor or a therapist. It is important to treat anxiety to prevent it from becoming a mental health problem in the future.
Employees mental health
We recognise that our employees may go through various challenges in life such as a bereavement or a divorce, or they may just be finding the daily responsibilities overwhelming. We put our employees’ wellbeing at the core of our business, as we recognise our duty to support each other. We are all normal and kind people, and it is our people that drives our business. We are now an employee owned business which means that our employees have an input into the core values of our company. Promoting mental wellbeing is one of those core values, as is being a kind and honest person. We recognise that happy and healthy employees will ultimately lead to a better service for our clients. We are kind people and this makes our solicitors and support staff more approachable to our clients.
Mental health first aid
In order to support our employees, we have in the last year implemented mental health first aid training. The employees that have received the training have then gone on to become our designated ‘mental health first aiders,’ running drop-in sessions for our employees throughout the week. The drop-in sessions are a chance for people to speak to someone on a confidential basis about what is on their mind and offers a chance to decompress and assess what they can do to improve their mental health.
Being alert to how others are feeling
We have raised awareness of the steps that our employees can take to manage their mental health by putting up information leaflets on mental health around the office. The leaflets encourage our employees to check in with how they are feeling and to be alert to how others may be feeling. It is important to recognise the impact that your words and behaviours can have on other people.
Top tips for managing anxiety
There are some positive steps that can be taken to manage anxiety.
- Exercise – it can burn off excess adrenaline, promote self-confidence, improve sleep and promote more feelings of calm.
- Sleep – having enough sleep can improve your mood and your concentration and help you to feel more resilient at work.
- Breathing – holding in your breath and then releasing your breath by engaging in deep breathing can bring you back to a state of calm.
- Diet – avoiding too much caffeine and alcohol can help you manage anxiety. Caffeine is a stimulant and alcohol is a depressant which can affect your mood and resilience levels.
- 10 minute worry time – to help bring worrying under control it is helpful to allocate a specific time of your day to worrying about what is on your mind, and then you can get on with the rest of your day.
It is important to remember that you are not alone in your feelings and there is always support out there for you. Organisations such as MIND run programmes designed to offer support.
Positive conversations
At Oliver & Co Solicitors we encourage positive conversations about mental health, and this atmosphere leads our employees towards a better understanding when working with each other and with our clients. We want our employees to feel happy at work and our clients to feel that their solicitor is approachable and understands their needs.
