Put your own mask on before helping others

Mental health and its impact on work, and the happiness and productivity of people in the workplace, is a significant issue.  It is important enough for the Midlands Engine to initiate a Mental Health Productivity Pilot utilising the skills and resources of our nine Midlands Engine LEPs and the Universities of Lincoln, Derby, and Nottingham with local activity led by Dean Fathers, Greater Lincolnshire LEP Director and Chair of the Centre for Organisational Resilience within the University of Lincoln Business School.  

As a former mental health nurse for nearly 40 years, it is pleasing to read and hear people starting to focus on their health and particularly their mental health. When I began my career, I was working in an old asylum.  Because of economic and population growth, the town spread closer until the hospital was sold off for development and the wards I worked on became apartments costing £1 million or more. 

This creep into the asylum is something of a metaphor for the creep of mental health into our lives, and more recently, into our working lives.  We are becoming less afraid of the topic, and more attuned to the complexities inherent in being human.  The pandemic has impacted differently on everyone: some people have thrived from the ending of commutes or other strains, while others have struggled.  Many have been managing competing demands, and often work and home schooling simultaneously.  One of my students who also works in a call centre told me of the difference she felt, and the struggle she had, in receiving phone abuse in her own home as opposed to being in a call centre.  In an office environment this was accepted and supported as part of the job, whereas in her own home it felt like an invasion of her private space. 

Post-pandemic, things will be different.  Our work-life discourse will be different.  Employers will be asked to consider radical alternative ways of responding to the changes we will have to cope with, from flexible working and parenting and caring responsibilities to management structures for productivity and possible periodic future lock-downs. So how can we focus our minds and bodies on this? 

The title of this piece (for which I thank my colleague, Jim Rogers) reflects the air safety guidance as we should think about our own health before we are in a position to really help others.  Employers, managers and fellow employees may be called upon to respond to the range of complex consequences of the pandemic, from loss, anger, frustration, elation, to despair.  How do we respond when we have not considered whether our own house is in order?  We must learn to forgive our failings before we can help others.  Perhaps the response to the Covid pandemic should be to focus our attention on our own response, our own challenges, and our own solutions. 

We are becoming more aware of the interconnectedness between body and mind. The importance of diet and its effects on the microbiome – the immune system and the brain – is becoming a fascinating area of study in terms of our mental and physical health.  How often do we consider whether the food we eat, the sleep we get, our social interactions, the way we breathe and the medicines we take have complex interactions on our mental health?   

As an employee of the University of Lincoln I am fully aware of our civic responsibility to be embedded in the life and work of our locality and communities.  As a significant local employer, we have an important role in supporting and enhancing the lives of people in Lincolnshire and beyond.  Recent developments in the creation of the Lincoln Medical School – jointly funded by the university and the Greater Lincolnshire LEP – adds to the richness of both our existing health and social care opportunities and the responsibilities this brings. Developing and delivering a diverse health and social care workforce that is compassionate and expert in its work is at the heart of our approach, and the Lincoln International Institute for Rural Health exists to support our understanding and tackle the health inequalities that exist between urban and rural communities, particularly through the use of sustainable remote healthcare engagement and delivery resources. 

There are many challenges we know or have yet to face, but a good start is to look at ourselves.  In that focus we need to be open to the idea that not everyone is like us, and so individuals will always cope differently. When we are self-compassionate, we can then be in a position to support others, be that employees, colleagues, friends or family. Health and wellbeing in the workplace are of paramount importance and other colleagues and contributors to this special health and care newsletter explore this in some detail.  

I am always happy to celebrate my Irish heritage and was aware of a phrase that became used during the pandemic: Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine, which means ‘In the shadow of others, we live’.  A less poetic translation means we have to recognise that it is with others and through others that we live. We have a duty to care and support. I propose that such care and support start with ourselves in order to truly effect meaningful and supportive help for others. 

Dr Ian McGonagle  

To find out more about mental health in the workforce and support programmes available visit the Business Lincolnshire page here and the collaboration with the Lincolnshire Chamber of Commerce's Leadership & Wellbeing Hub here.