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Supporting Mental Wellbeing

You may be feeling anxious or concerned about coronavirus (COVID-19) and how it is affecting all aspects of your life at the moment. This may include having to stay at home and avoid other people. Here are some tips and advice on looking after your mental health and wellbeing during the COVID-19 outbreak, including when staying at home for a prolonged period.

  • Get the facts- avoid speculation and only look up information from reputable sources such as NHS Inform - Coronavirus Advice (opens new window) or Scottish Government - Coronavirus (opens new window)
  • Stay connected - At times of stress, we work better with support. Try to keep in touch with your friends and family. Your manager and your colleagues are also able to support if you are working at home.
  • Manage your media intake- There is extensive coverage about the outbreak in the news. It is important to keep informed but if watching, reading or listening to news is causing you distress then you should limit your intake. This is a useful BBC article (opens new window) on how to protect your mental health which you main find helpful.

The 18 Steps focused on wellbeing (PDF, 165 KB)(opens new window) provides further information on how you can support your own wellbeing during the pandemic.

Another tool that can be used for self reflection or a 1:1 conversation with your line manager is the Personal Wellbeing Conversation Tool (PDF, 26 KB)(opens new window).  You can choose which topics and question you want to focus on.

The councils Four Pillars of Wellbeing site (opens new window) provides a wider range of Information and resources to support the Employee Health And Wellbeing Framework (PDF, 625 KB)(opens new window) designed to deliver the People Strategy 2018-23 (PDF, 358 KB)(opens new window). The site provides wellbeing information in one place that is easily accessible to staff and managers. 

Help EAP

The council's Employee Assistance Programme is open to all employees and can be contacted by calling on 0800 0285 148.  This confidential helpline service is free and available 24 hours a day, 365 days per year. For more information on the counselling and advice services available, open this link Help EAP Brief (PDF, 227 KB)(opens new window).  General information is also available on the dedicated Help EAP (opens new window) website.  No report is provided to your line manager and all consultations remain strictly confidential. 

Chaplaincy 

The Workplace Chaplaincy Service are aware of the impact on some of self-isolation, working from home, dealing with illness or bereavement.  These are anxious times for many people and they would encourage people to contact the Chaplain to share concerns could be a comfort and support. This service is non-religious at the point of contact and there is no requirement to practice a faith. The details of local Chaplains are below.

Optima Health

The council's Occupational Health provider Optima has also provided some useful guidance for employees below in the form of Optima Health - Managing Fatigue (PDF, 690 KB)(opens new window) and Optima Health - COVID-19 Looking after your Mental Health (PDF, 551 KB)(opens new window)

Learning & Development

The council also has a range of e-learning modules that employees may find beneficial at this time. This can be accessed via MyLearning Platform (opens new window) and includes

  • Mentally Healthy Workplace for Managers - being aware of mental health issues and identifying the symptoms, as well as offering support
  • Mentally Health Workplace Employees - as above
  • Stressless - Insights and techniques for managing stress and anxiety.

Guidance on Mental wellbeing

There are also sites you may find helpful that have more detailed tips for supporting your mental wellbeing:

Further guidance and self help tools are available on the Council's Four Pillars of Wellbeing - Mental Wellbeing webpage. 

Some may find Mindfulness is a useful technique in the current circumstances, a guide to how it can be beneficial and few of links to basic mindfulness practice are below: