Supporting the mental health of your staff

STAFF SUPPORT

Supporting the mental health of your staff

Supporting positive mental health and wellness in all workplaces is essential. Throughout the healthcare sector, providers treat or refer patients to specialists for mental health conditions daily. Yet, many of these professionals are also suffering, particularly so with the ongoing stress and uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some practice managers have recently taken it upon themselves to go the extra mile for their staff. A flower for a colleague, a round of coffees for the team, implementing some ‘human’ initiatives such as ‘Fun Fridays’, healthy competitions like step challenges or seasonal parties with Secret Santa type gift exchanges can have a positive impact on practice team morale. If added onto your ‘usual’ calendar of celebrations (for birthdays, anniversaries, cultural or religious occasions, etc), initiatives that recognise our humanity can be the bridge from ho-hum to hi-hum! ‘We are all having to learn an enormous amount of new information to augment our practice, what we do, and move towards a new way of operating. This could be long-term or short-term, we don’t know yet.’ – Di Hickey

For those looking for something more than these gestures, housed in your AGPAL accreditation hub, is a webinar recorded in June 2020 by AGPAL’s sister company Quality Innovation Performance Limited (QIP) titled ‘We are #inthistogether: supporting mental health in healthcare’. This webinar, hosted by QIP with mental health expert Di Hickey, discusses approaches to support the creation of a mentally healthy workplace and identifies professional resources available to help those who may be suffering from mental health issues.

Resources

There is a wealth of support online for mental health, but as part of QIP’s ‘We are #inthistogether’ webinar, a series of specific resources is outlined to assist in providing appropriate and thorough mental health support for healthcare organisations. Take a look at some of them: Queensland Mental Health Commission – COVID-19 and mental health https://bit.ly/QN20_MH1 Worksafe Queensland – Workplace psychological health considerations https://bit.ly/QN20_MH4

Safe Work Australia – Mental health: Tips for managing stress from COVID-19 https://bit.ly/QN20_MH2 Beyond Blue – Protecting your mental health and wellbeing as a healthcare worker https://bit.ly/QN20_MH5

Staying connected via the Australian Network on Disability (AND) – Staying connected – inclusive working from home practices and supporting mental health and wellbeing https://bit.ly/QN20_MH3

STANDARDS

IN FOCUS

Follow-up systems are important for both the patient and general practice. Tackled under Criterion GP2.2 –Follow-up systems, clinically significant results must be communicated quickly and appropriately so appropriate action can be taken.

13 Follow-up systems and recalls

Tackled under RACGP Standards 5th edition, Criterion GP2.2 is important for both the patient and general practice, appropriate action must be taken for clinically significant results.

17 Managing clinical risks

We outline the mandatory Indicators in RACGP Standards 5th edition Criterion QI3.1, and how to identify, monitor and continuously improve on your practice's near misses.