HND Public Services: Mental Health and Wellbeing Unit 2 Assignment

This report, prepared for a HND in Public Services, investigates the critical aspects of mental health and wellbeing within the context of public service roles, using the Grenfell Tower Fire as a central case study. The report begins by exploring the interconnectedness of physical and mental health, followed by an assessment of social and psychological factors impacting the wellbeing of emergency service employees. It then delves into the significance of early childhood experiences for mental health and identifies early warning signs of mental stress, alongside the support structures provided by public service organizations. Furthermore, the report outlines interventions designed to promote healthy stress coping mechanisms and strategies for building individual resilience. The role of supervision in supporting public service workers' wellbeing is described, culminating in a personal plan for enhancing mental awareness and wellbeing, as well as a review of the references used. The report emphasizes the importance of early intervention, resilience building, and the provision of supportive structures to address the unique mental health challenges faced by public service professionals.

Unit 2: Mental Health
and Wellbeing

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1 ...........................................................................................................................................1
P1. Exploring link among physical addition to mental heath......................................................1
P2. Assessing range of social as well as psychological factors which impacts towards mental
health addition to well being of emergency service employee....................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
P3. Reviewing significance of early experiences in childhood for mental health.......................3
P4. Exploring early warning signs of mental stress within individuals along with the support
structure that is provided by public service company..................................................................3
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................4
P5. Identification of interventions which could be used for promoting healthy methods for
coping with stress.........................................................................................................................4
P6. Reviewing strategies which could be used for the purpose of building resilience within
individuals....................................................................................................................................5
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................5
P7. Describing role of supervision to support well being of public service workers..................5
P8. Producing personal plan for enhancing own mental awareness as well as well being as
public service workers.................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Mental health and well being is a state of condition in which a person realises their
competences, deal with normal stress level, makes adequate contributions within a community
and work productively (Arslan, Allen and Tanhan, 2020). Expressing and managing range
emotions, ability to feel, express and learn, maintaining good relationships, etc are some of signs
that shows good mental health and well being of an individual. For the project, selected case is of
Grenfell Tower Fire which occurred on June 14, 2017. In this case, a fire broke out in twenty
four storey Grenfell Tower block of flats at West London, UK. More than 70 people were
injured, 72 died and 223 escaped. To help[ firefighters, NHS played important role in this case as
around 100 NHS trust took responsibility to provide urgent and emergency medical services to
people.
The report discusses factors which influence mental health addition to wellbeing, values
of early interventions and assesses strategies to promote healthy techniques for coping with
stress. It also reviews measures which public service employees could undertake for promoting
mental health addition to resilience.
TASK 1
P1. Exploring link among physical addition to mental heath
Mental health is delineated as state of well being in which all people realises their own
abilities, perform fruitfully, manage normal stress and makes huge contributions in society. It is
well being of emotional, psychological and social levels of an individual. A person having good
mental health have aspects to maintain healthy relationships, manage complexities of change
addition to express wider emotions (Bhugra and et.al., 2019). In contrary, physical health is said
to state in which an individual is able to perform activities concerned with occupations, daily
practices and sports. In case with Grenfell Tower fire, it impacted adversely on mental and
physical health of people and emergency service workers. Professionals of NHS says that
mental and physical health have great linkage as poor mental mental acts as risk factors for
chronic physical situation. In accordance to the case, people who suffered with serious mental
health situation are at great risk of experiencing degenerative physical conditions and population
that have chronic physical issues are generally at great risk to build poor mental health.
1

Mental and physical health comprises variants of associations among mental situations to
that of chronic physical health. In context to Grenfell Tower Fire, emergency department
employees of NHS and other healthcare people took massive initiative to help injured one in the
case. Because of the fire, various people became physically disable which impacted drastically
on their performances as they lack ability to feel, think and express emotions (Hillside, 2019).
P2. Assessing range of social as well as psychological factors which impacts towards mental
health addition to well being of emergency service employee
There are various types of factors that impacts on mental health and well-being of people
that work within emergency service organisation (Harding and et.al., 2019). In relevance to
NHS, the social and psychological factors associated to case of Grenfell Tower Fire which
impacts largely on mental health and well-being of employees are as assessed:
Motivation and influences: It is a psychological factor which initiate, direct and
maintain objective oriented behaviors. In case with Grenfell Tower Fire, employees of
emergency service that is NHS were influenced, encourages and motivated by senior
management to protect people in 24-storey Grenfell Tower block of flats so that the maximum
population are saved from the disaster which impacted positively on mental health and well
being of employees as the medical institution have provided additional incentives and
recognition to the firefighters.
Attitudes: It involves sets of behaviors, emotions and beliefs for particular event of
object (Hrabok, Delorme and Agyapong, 2020). In relevance to situation of Grenfell Tower Fire,
emergency service employees have developed an attitude to help people suffering from fire on
the building which impacts favorably on their mental health as they are prepared to perform in all
kinds of adverse situation. In context to firefighters of NHS, their attitude is same as it was
earlier when they tool oath for providing all medical facilities to citizens that are facing tough
events.
Trends: It is general direction wherein something is either changing or developing. In
context to case related to fire, there are various trends that are changing ways in which working
of emergency service employees have changed (McDaid and et.al., 2017). For example, new
application of data analysis, enhanced community risk reduction programs, increased demand for
accountability between fire department and hence forth are trends that provides full safety to
emergency service staff to provide services at which fire occurs. In case of Grenfell Tower Fire,
2

all equipment and tools were up to the standards and proper training was provided to all
employees as per the trend that impacts positively on their mental health and well-being to save
people in the situation.
TASK 2
P3. Reviewing significance of early experiences in childhood for mental health
Early intervention or experience is said to getting assistance early for population to shoe
early symptoms as well as signs of mental health issues together with people experiencing a first
episode of any illness (O’Reilly and et.al., 2018). In any kind of case, early detections and
experiences have huge benefits in mental health of children and emergency service employees.
In case with Grenfell Tower Fire, early experience is significant for mental health of firefighters
of NHS as it lower risk or uncertainty of relapse. Early experience helps emergency respondents
of fire fighting company to learn new skills as well as techniques to protect all the people that are
suffering in the event and respond quickly so that minimum damages are caused due to fire.
Moreover, early experiences keeps emergency service staff more active and engaged to perform
workings.
Early experiences shapes architecture of growth of brains among children as it lays down
foundation about sound mental health (Owen and Corfe, 2017). Furthermore, early disruptions
causes major risks in development of behavioral and psychological issues later in any situation.
It sometimes creates anxiety disorders, aggressive behaviors, high depression rates and post
traumatic stress disorder are analysed among mental health of emergency responders who have
experienced situations in their childhood phases.
P4. Exploring early warning signs of mental stress within individuals along with the support
structure that is provided by public service company
Mental stress is type of stress that is accompanied through physiological responses. It is
the degree within which people feel overwhelmed as well as unable to cope due to outcomes of
pressure which are unmanageable in nature. Emotional issues, traumatic events or chronic illness
are main causes of mental stress within an individual (Patalay and Fitzsimons, 2018). In context
to people that work in public service organisation, one of early warning sign of stress is
irritability as people often feel irritated or feel agitated while experiencing some stressful
situation. In case with Grenfell Tower Fire, early sign that caused stress among service providers
3

of NHS is irritation from the fire as they were eager to protect people from the drastic situation.
At same time, other early warning sign of stress is pain in any type as people feels overloaded
while working towards some situation sue to which they faces pain in their body. Pain is major
indicator of any stress. Firefighters routinely experiences huge stress on their working and
certain stress actuates peak efficiency and performances. Prolonged stress is lading cause of
mental problems within firefighters and emergency service providers. When mental stress in not
managed promptly then excessive stress have chances to manifest as signs of anxiety,
hypertension, depression and digestive issues.
In case of Grenfell Tower Fire, effective support structure is provided by NHS to people
who have injured and to emergency service providers to faced huge stress in the situation.
Effective leaves were provided to employees that faced injuries while providing safety to people
in the fire situation. Also, medical services at home programme was run by the public service
entity to help staff and patients to overcome from the drastic event. Proper instructions to utilise
medication was provided as tool for depression by public service entity (Pitchforth and et.al.,
2019).
TASK 3
P5. Identification of interventions which could be used for promoting healthy methods for coping
with stress
There are various interventions that health related organisations can use for promoting
healthy methods so to cope with stressful situations. In this, managers of NHS have identified
Social media strategy to be considered so to promote methods to deal with stress in case it
Grenfell Tower Fire. Social media strategy involves summary of all things that are planned for
performing and hoping to attain through social media. The strategy promotes methods and
techniques that helps people to cure from stressful condition. In relevance to Grenfell Tower
Fire, use of social media strategy can promote healthy methods by connecting with multiple
population working in NHS, sharing stories about how others have used the methods to deal with
stress and watching creative videos. Moreover, social media strategy helps public service
providers to create own content about methods and posting them in social media platforms that
cures stress easily (Stephan, 2018).
4

P6. Reviewing strategies which could be used for the purpose of building resilience within
individuals
Resilience is an ability to cope with crisis or recovering from difficulties in quick
manner. It is the process to adapt well in context to significant stress sources and adversity. It
includes differences among handling pressures as well as losing cool among people. In case with
Grenfell Tower Fire, it is important for managers of NHS to build resilience among individual
that are emergency service employees. For this aspect, some of the strategies that can be used by
managers to build resilience are as reviewed:
Blue Light Programme: The strategy involves training that is to be delivered to people
with aim of providing support to mental wellbeing and health of emergency service providers
(Tough, Siegrist and Fekete, 2017). With this strategy, managers of NHS could provide mental
health support to individuals especially to emergency service staff across UK and surrounding
nations with the aim of building resilience.
Maintaining addition to forming relationships: To build resilience within people,
maintaining and forming relationships is effective strategy in which people that are suffering
from stressful situations are supported to deal with past. In relevance to Grenfell Tower Fire,
when senior administrators of NHS forms and maintains good relationship then they are able to
support people including emergency support employees by making them feel valuable so that
they cope up with stress.
Fostering wellness: In this strategy, organisation managers help or support subordinates
to take care of themselves by taking good care of body and practicing mindfulness. In association
to NHS, managers could build resilience among individuals including emergency responders by
supporting them in self care which is a legitimate activity for mental health. It promotes positive
lifestyle and strengthens body to adapt stress as well as reduce toll of emotions.
TASK 4
P7. Describing role of supervision to support well being of public service workers
Supervision refers to the control and the work force to see weather the company is doing
the work according to the plan or not. Supervision has different roles in the organisation which
are described below:
5

 Advocate: It responsible according to the request of the employees and give the rewards
to the desired person. In the context of the Grenfell tower fire the NHS company provide
the good services to the customers and trained the employees in proper manner by having
the regular supervision on them and rewarding them for the good services.
 Coach: It refers to the growth in the field of the professional and the personal coaching as
it helps in guiding how the work can be done in easy manner (Volpe and et.al., 2019).
The NHS company the coach trains the employees in the proper manner so that they can
provide a good services to the company.
 Facilitators: It refers to the group of people and achieving the results by working with
each other and achieving the desired tasks. The NHS company Facilitators refers to the
people who can achieve their task by providing the services in an proper manner and
being rewarded because of their work.
 Mentor: It refers to the person who help the other in developing their careers and have a
mutual relationship between them. The NHS company have various mentors who guides
their subordinates so that they can also learn the new ways of providing the services and
can perform better.
P8. Producing personal plan for enhancing own mental awareness as well as well being as public
service workers
Personal plan is said the process for designing an action plan as per awareness, objective
development, reflection and planning for self improvement (Williams, Dingle and Clift, 2018).
For the welfare officer, personal plan to improve their mental awareness and wellbeing so to
assist emergency service employees to remain stress free after responding towards Grenfell
Tower Fire is as follows:
Particulars Description
Tip 1: Planning and taking
initiative for change
In this, Welfare Officer of NHS will be able to plan things
that support emergency service providers and
implementation of the actions so that all staff feel valuable
to company. Through this, welfare officer will make
necessary changes in their practices because of which they
have faced issues in responding towards Grenfell Tower
6

Fire so that they performing practices without any stress.
Tip 2: Creating infographics Infographics is aggregation of imagery, minimal texts and
charts which provides easy to understand about things
(ensen and Bonde, 2018). Welfare Officer of NHS can
create infographics to improve knowledge of self and
employees who have made huge efforts to respond towards
Grenfell Tower Fire.
Tip 3: Telling magnetic stories Story telling is one of practice that improves imagination,
delivering expressions, etc so that individuals come back. In
association to Grenfell Tower Fire, welfare officer of NHS
will be able to share magnetic stories with emergency
service employees that support and motivate them to deal
with stress, gain new techniques to work in other situations
and hence forth.
CONCLUSION
From the discussion, it have been concluded that it is essential for all individuals to
maintaining their mental health and well-being in which they are able to ascertain their own
potentials for coping with huge stress and working productively. Physical and mental health are
linked to each other as there is no mental health with physical health and no physical health
without mental health. Factors including attitudes, motivations and trends impacts adversely on
mental health of individual. Early warning signs related to mental stress are anxiety, depression,
sleeping disorders and many more that are experienced by people. Social media strategy is an
intervention that could be used by the enterprise for promoting healthy approaches of coping
with stress. Supervision performs role of advocate, coach and facilitator to support wellbeing of
workers in public service entities.
7

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Arslan, G., Allen, K. A. and Tanhan, A., 2020. School bullying, mental health, and wellbeing in
adolescents: mediating impact of positive psychological orientations. Child Indicators
Research, pp.1-20.
Bhugra, D. and et.al., 2019. A descriptive study of mental health and wellbeing of doctors and
medical students in the UK. International Review of Psychiatry. 31(7-8). pp.563-568.
Harding, S. and et.al., 2019. Is teachers’ mental health and wellbeing associated with students’
mental health and wellbeing?. Journal of affective disorders. 242. pp.180-187.
Hrabok, M., Delorme, A. and Agyapong, V. I., 2020. Threats to mental health and well-being
associated with climate change. Journal of Anxiety Disorders. 76. p.102295.
Jensen, A. and Bonde, L.O., 2018. The use of arts interventions for mental health and wellbeing
in health settings. Perspectives in public health. 138(4). pp.209-214.
McDaid, D. and et.al., 2017. Commissioning cost-effective services for promotion of mental
health and wellbeing and prevention of mental ill-health.
O’Reilly, M. and et.al., 2018. Is social media bad for mental health and wellbeing? Exploring the
perspectives of adolescents. Clinical child psychology and psychiatry. 23(4). pp.601-
613.
Owen, L. and Corfe, B., 2017. The role of diet and nutrition on mental health and
wellbeing. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society. 76(4). pp.425-426.
Patalay, P. and Fitzsimons, E., 2018. Development and predictors of mental ill-health and
wellbeing from childhood to adolescence. Social psychiatry and psychiatric
epidemiology. 53(12). pp.1311-1323.
Pitchforth, J. and et.al., 2019. Mental health and well-being trends among children and young
people in the UK, 1995–2014: analysis of repeated cross-sectional national health
surveys. Psychological medicine. 49(8). pp.1275-1285.
Stephan, U., 2018. Entrepreneurs’ mental health and well-being: A review and research
agenda. Academy of Management Perspectives, 32(3), pp.290-322.
Tough, H., Siegrist, J. and Fekete, C., 2017. Social relationships, mental health and wellbeing in
physical disability: a systematic review. BMC Public Health. 17(1). pp.1-18.
Volpe, U. and et.al., 2019. Mental health and wellbeing among Italian medical students: a
descriptive study. International review of psychiatry. 31(7-8). pp.569-573.
Williams, E., Dingle, G. A. and Clift, S., 2018. A systematic review of mental health and
wellbeing outcomes of group singing for adults with a mental health
condition. European Journal of Public Health. 28(6). pp.1035-1042.
Online:
Hillside. 2019. The Link Between Physical and Mental Health. [Online]. Available through:
<https://hside.org/link-between-physical-and-mental-health/>
8