Mental Health and Wellbeing in Public Services: A Comprehensive Report

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MENTAL HEALTH
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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
LO2 and LO3..............................................................................................................................................2
D2 Appraise a local or national strategy to promote the mental health and resilience of a specific group
within the public services sector..............................................................................................................2
LO3.............................................................................................................................................................3
P5 Identify interventions that can be used to promote healthy methods to cope with stress....................3
P6 Review strategies that can be used to build resilience in individuals..................................................4
M3 Assess the potential benefits and limitations of the use of social media to promote mental health
and wellbeing..........................................................................................................................................5
LO4.............................................................................................................................................................6
P7 Describe the role of supervision in supporting the wellbeing of public services workers...................6
P8 Produce a personal plan to enhance own mental health awareness and wellbeing as a public services
worker.....................................................................................................................................................7
M4 Examine the impact of colleagues, friends, and family on public services workers' own mental
health and wellbeing................................................................................................................................8
D3 Analyze the impact of policies that may promote mental health and wellbeing in a public services
context.....................................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................9
References.................................................................................................................................................11
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Introduction
Mental health is a very important aspect that should be maintained to keep the well being of one
person. The mental health I maintained if the emotional, psychological and social well being is
maintained in one's life. Mental health is also important for handling any kind of stress and
trauma in life (Betterhealth.vic.gov.au, 2019). Proper mental health is necessary for the whole
life span of a person to take good and evitable decisions in the span of life and regarding one's
life. If anyone is suffering from any kind of mental health issue that will affect his or her mood,
behavior and can create an impact on the individuals related to that person. In the case of
employees this mental well being is a serious issue as the good and healthy employees are
considered to be the backbone of an organization may it be the public or private sector. The
human resource management work for the employees well being. So in the present time, they are
also involving this topic of mental health of workers into conversations so that they can see the
positive and if any negative aspect related to this mental health aspect. The researcher says that
the workplace environment plays a vital role in the maintenance of the mental health of one
employee. The increased and developed mental condition leaves the company with greater
productivity rate and development in the global market. According to “WHO” that is world
health organization"... a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own
abilities can cope with the normal stresses of life can work productively and fruitfully, and is
able to make a contribution to his or her community." The various reasons can be the cause of
the poor mental health of the employees in the workplace such as communication gap, abuse, no
recognition for the work being done and many more (Legg, 2017). The paper deals with the
various other and some similar aspects of the mental health in employees belonging to the public
sector (cultureiq, 2019).
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LO2 and LO3
D2 Appraise a local or national strategy to promote the mental health and resilience of a
specific group within the public services sector
Mental health and well being is most important for the workers who are involved with the public
service sectors. The mental health issues are considered as the burden for the public health and
this burden is applied for the global context. The local and national governments of various
countries are struggling to manage mental health issues. The UK government is also
experiencing significant issues regarding the mental health of the employees who are working
with the public services sectors. Moreover, for this reason, there are various local governments
along with the UK national government are providing extensive focus on developing efficient
healthcare policies and strategies to promote the mental health and wellbeing of the peoples of
this country. However, the strategies and policies by the government authorities often face a
substantial level of resilience from a certain group within the public services sectors in this
country (Hr.ucdavis.edu, 2019).
Public Health England is responsible for protecting as well as enhancing the scenarios of health
and wellbeing of this nation. Apart from this, the department is also responsible for minimizing
the health inequalities in this country. Moreover, it is also liable to develop effective healthcare
policies and strategies to ensure the stable mental health and wellbeing of the peoples of this
country.
The UK government has the healthcare policy to promote mental health and well being in the
workplaces within the public services sectors. Efficient implementation of the preventive
strategies at the workplace cannot just promote the mental health and well being of the
employees but also support in avoiding a few significant costs related to the absenteeism in the
workplaces. The strategy helps in ensuring the sound mental health of the workers and the
workers with sound mental health can be more productive for the organization (mentalhealth,
2019). However, some of the groups are not in favour of the mental health and well-being
strategies by the government authorities but the strategies have gained overall support from the
public services workers.
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LO3
P5 Identify interventions that can be used to promote healthy methods to cope with stress
Stress is mainly said to be the circumstance that a person deals with resulting from inequality
between the demand of the situation and the ability of the individual and also inspire one to meet
up those needs. It may be positive or negative, like stress can be said good when the particular
circumstances offer a proper opportunity to an individual in order to attain something, sometimes
stress acts as a motivational factor. Stress is considered as negative when an individual face
issues regarding emotional, physically and internally. Excessive stress leads to arise various
types of health issues like mental health, stroke, heart attack and many more (Millar and
Donnelly, 2014). In order to cope up with stress the involvement of various aspects like
relaxation time, enough sleep, etc. However the most important are mentioned below to cope up
with stress
 It is to be sure that one when dealing with stress must try to take plenty of sleep at least
for eight hours at night especially. Having an appropriate sleep at night is sometimes a
great issue that mainly faced by the person who is trying to cope up with stress.
Sometimes it is also being suggested that sleeping is the problem then one must try
spending their time on writing paper, reading books, listening to music, having a soak in
the bath and certain things that may rest his mind before going to bed.
 One must try to follow regular exercise; this will help the particular sufferer to not only to
maintain physical health but also to free up the mind. Making enough use of the nerve,
bones, hormones will help the sufferer to avoid stress. Exercises like dancing, swimming,
walking, jogging and many more are required to be always active.
 One should have relaxation time; this means that one should try to make some leisure
time from their busy working schedules. Therefore in order to cope with stress, one
should involve themselves with non-academic tasks like reading novels, listening to
music, doing some craft works and many more (Thomas and Wright, 2016).
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P6 Review strategies that can be used to build resilience in individuals
Resilience is said to be the process of adapting well and again involve in tasks at the time of
stress. Stress leads to disrupt the entire immune system as well as serious problems of health and
many more. Developing resilience could help to deal with the stress challenges, disappointments,
failures, etc. As per some of the psychological associates, resilience is the process of facing the
trauma, threats and other sources to stress. Developing skills of resiliencies could help one to
deal with challenges and difficulties of life. Therefore it can also be said that resilience helps to
tackle the stress more efficiently and making it more balance in one's life. It is also natural that
without darkness there is no light means without negative one could not know what positive
sides are there and even how they could cope up with those factors. Life is not always easy but
one should try to tackle and overcome those aspects. Therefore it is essential that one should
know how to adapt to changes in order to overcome the issues of stress. The particular person
must make a different mindset to blend with the circumstances and moreover also try to improve
their power of resilience for their future (Millar and Donnelly, 2014).
M3 Assess the potential benefits and limitations of the use of social media to promote
mental health and wellbeing
The generation of new technology is slowly changing the way that they communicate. Social
media is the platform where it serves various types of benefits and promotes mental health and
wellbeing. There are various platforms such as, facebook, twitter, tumbler, LinkedIn are the
various type of platform which helps to promote a lot of facility .the use of the social media have
various types of benefits and with that it also has various types of limitations (mentalhealth,
2019). The benefits of the social are been described as follows”-
1. Facilitates social interaction - social media is one of the greatest platforms where one
individual can make contact with one person who is very far off. The widely use of the
or the regular use of social media can encourage wellbeing and health and also helps in
positive interaction.
2. Social media also helps to make communities.
3. With the help of social media, it helps to normalize the help-seeking behavior.
4. The help of social media also helps to enhance and inspire healthy lifestyle changes.
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5. With the help of social media, an individual can be able to aid medical research.
6. Social media can also help in managing online risk.
There are various limitations of the social media which will bring effect in promoting mental
health and wellbeing. Those points are been enumerated below:-
1. An individual can receive various type of negative feedback – with the help of the
individual can be affected and it can also affect the individual in their mental health and
wellbeing. Through online social media, an individual can receive any kind of negatives
comments which can lead down to stress and anxiety. Negative comments can be
received from and of social sites (Le.ac.uk, 2019).
2. Through the help of social media it creates a potential for embarrassment.
3. Spending a lot of time in social media can lower down the thinking process of the
individual.
LO4
P7 Describe the role of supervision in supporting the wellbeing of public services workers.
The supervisor is mainly responsible for the extent to which the employees within the team
might or might not engage in the work-life programming and wellness offerings. The supervisors
have the responsibility in order to act as gatekeeper or cultivator. The manager of the
organization mainly keen on well-being and health programming (Hr.ucdavis.edu, 2019). These
offerings could be spread to the numbers of departments of the organization.
The supervisor or the manager of healthcare is the main link between the workforce and
management. The suitable programming and policy of communication mainly concern the well-
being. This automatically promotes the well-being culture. The supervisors need to communicate
the policies, programs, events, resources, and services to all the service workers. Some of the
most effective forms for communicating the members of the company were identified:
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 Infographics and posters related to the physical workspaces such as restrooms, break
rooms and printers.
 The particular email communication could be the most suitable option for the supervisor.
The supervisor could circulate the newsletter for example Safety Spotlight, Wellness, and
Work-life
 The supervisor needs to initiate regular meetings for the employees of the organization.
These meetings are mainly based on the purpose of acknowledging the well-being of
service workers.
The supervisor mainly focuses on motivating the employees to exercise more and to consume
better or healthy food. The supervisor plays the most important factor in promoting the well
being of the members of the organization. The effective relationship among the manager and
employees leads to more efficiency, productivity, and wellbeing of the individuals. This a low
level of conflicts could be identified as the result of an effective relationship. The roles of a
supervisor are to make sure that each and every employee are conducting their work as per safe
working conditions (Eprints.lse.ac.uk, 2017).
P8 Produce a personal plan to enhance own mental health awareness and wellbeing as a
public services worker
To produce mental health awareness and for the personal wellbeing, an individual should
maintain a proper daily routine. The individual should follow the following steps:-
1. Adopting a daily and healthy diet- In order to enhance the personal health and wellbeing as a
public worker, a healthy diet chart should be made. Healthy died chart plan helps to reduce stress
and provide mental calmness and it is also beneficial for physical health. A healthy diet chart
helps to maintain weight, illness, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Intake of green vegetables,
fruits help to reduce stress and with the intake of the non -veg food can make an increase in the
stress factors and can hamper daily life.
2. Regular exercise – with the help of the regular exercise a public service worker can be able to
enhance the mental health and awareness and the wellbeing. Regular morning exercise will help
to prevent various kinds of diseases (Le.ac.uk, 2019).
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3. Proper sleep – proper sleep is very mandatory in order to keep mentally stable and for good
health. Good and healthy sleep will help to energize the mental health and wellbeing.
M4 Examine the impact of colleagues, friends, and family on public services workers' own
mental health and wellbeing
Mental health is a very factor for public services workers. In organizational activities, workers
can face several mental pressure challenges. The wellbeing of the public service workers is very
much depended on the activities of the colleagues, friends, and family members. This type of
impact can be of two types such as negative impact and positive impact. In organizational tasks,
the colleagues of a worker can allocate his or her task to him. In this case, the worker can face
significant pressure to fulfil the tasks (mentalhealth, 2019). Many times, it has been seen that
public service workers cannot be denied doing colleague tasks. Due to this reason, public
services workers create pressure for himself or herself. The family members can be able to create
massive pressure over public service workers. The public service workers are always engaged
with organizational tasks. Many times, public service workers are not able to fulfill the demand
of the family members. Due to this reason, public service workers cannot maintain mental
stability. Public services are a very responsible job for the workers. It is very difficult for public
service workers to perform well in under pressure. The friends, colleagues, and family members
of the public service workers have to understand all the aspects. Mental stress can be able to de-
motivate public service workers. Friends and colleagues have to provide significant assistance to
public service workers. The family members have to understand the condition of the workers.
The public service workers have to perform as per their capacities. Long term mental health
problem can be able to reduce life expectancy. The impact of the friends, family members, and
colleagues towards public service workers cannot be denied. In the UK, the numbers of mental
health problem workers are rapidly increasing.
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D3 Analyze the impact of policies that may promote mental health and wellbeing in a
public services context
The government has adopted a universal workplace health promotion schemes that help in
improving the mental as well as physical health results or outcomes. The universal workplace
health promotion schemes help in improving the health outcomes of the employees of the public
sectors in this country. In this ways, the business organization can be able to enhance the
productivity of the employees, which in turn help in improving the productivity of the
organization also (Millar and Donnelly, 2014). These activities are for protecting the mental and
physical health of the employees of the public sectors in the UK. Moreover, this policy is also
useful in complying the health and safety legislation which has substantial impacts on the mental
health of the employees of the business organization. However, it is found that several
organization level measures are not adequate to formulate the health policy in a manageable
manner. The policy has positive impacts on the mental health and well being of the employees
who are working with the public sectors. The universal workplace health promotion schemes are
considered as one of the most efficient healthcare policies in the UK in order to ensure the
mental health and wellbeing of the employees of the organization of the public sector in the UK.
The psychological risks assessment methods support in recognizing the mental health condition
of the employees. Moreover, better training of the line managers helps in minimizing the risks
factors and improving the health outcomes of the employees of the organization in the UK. The
guidelines for workplace mental and physical health promotion policy help in maintaining
mental health and well being of the peoples who work in the public sectors company.
Conclusion
Mental health is an eminent condition that the public sectors should prioritize more. The
company generally view and looks for several aspects of employees but forgets to look for this.
But the paper has discussed various zones of mental health that are relatable with the employee's
mental health. It has mentioned certain policies such as universal workplace scheme for health
and all as that will bring well being in the employee's mental health. Along with this, some
personal action plans are being created by the employees of the public sector to maintaining
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proper health of mind and psychology (Thomas and Wright, 2016). The paper has shown some
evident responsibilities that the supervisors of the public sector companies are taking in getting
evident with the employee's health and mindset. The social media in today’s time is acting as a
boon and to some extent a curse too. The addition of the people of social media making their
health a bit off as compared to past situations. This cognitive practice is helping the company to
develop and the employee’s health is the main point of attraction in today’s worlds. The mental
health of some employees also being impacted by the involvement of friends and family too. The
good behavior and respectful approach help the employees to shine in life and bad behavioral
approaches make the self-esteem down of the employees. The concluding aspect that is being got
through this paper is the world organizations may it be public or private should initiate some
important and evadable parameters or measures to check the mental health of the employees in a
regular interval of time.
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References
Betterhealth.vic.gov.au (2019). Colleagues, employees and mental health in the workplace.
[online] Betterhealth.vic.gov.au. Available at:
https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/ServicesAndSupport/colleagues-employees-
and-mental-health-in-the-workplace [Accessed 20 May 2019].
cultureiq (2019). Why Employee Mental Health Has to Be Part of the Workplace Conversation -
CultureIQ. [online] CultureIQ. Available at: https://cultureiq.com/blog/why-employee-
mental-health-workplace-conversation/ [Accessed 20 May 2019].
Eprints.lse.ac.uk (2017). Commissioning Cost-Effective Services for Promotion of Mental Health
and Wellbeing and Prevention of Mental Ill-Health. [online] Eprints.lse.ac.uk. Available
at: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/85944/1/McDaid_Commissioning%20cost-effectgive
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Hr.ucdavis.edu (2019). The Role of the Manager/Supervisor in Well-being | Human Resources.
[online] Hr.ucdavis.edu. Available at: https://hr.ucdavis.edu/departments/worklife-
wellness/managers/wbeing-toolkit/roles [Accessed 20 May 2019].
Le.ac.uk (2019). Six strategies for dealing with stress. [online] Le.ac.uk. Available at:
https://www.le.ac.uk/oerresources/ssds/studyskills/page_27.htm [Accessed 20 May 2019].
Legg, T. (2017). Mental health: Definition, common disorders, and early signs. [online] Medical
News Today. Available at: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/154543.php
[Accessed 20 May 2019].
mentalhealth (2019). How to support mental health at work. [online] Mental Health Foundation.
Available at: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/publications/how-support-mental-health-
work [Accessed 20 May 2019].
Millar, S. and Donnelly, M. (2014). Promoting mental wellbeing: developing a theoretically and
empirically sound complex intervention. [online] Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdt075 [Accessed 20 May 2019].
Thomas, S. and Wright, F. (2016). Promoting Mental Health and Preventing Mental Illness in
General Practice. [online] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Available at:
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