The importance of taking care of yourself in order to be effective when caring for others, was the key message from Jill Delaney, a specialist in wellbeing, who was speaking at the Unite-CPHVA Northern Ireland Conference last week.
Jill Delaney’s session looked at the impact of stress and complex caseloads for health visitors and community practitioners, and the benefits of managing the physical and psychological responses
to it.
As someone with a background in health visiting and nursing, Jill (pictured above, left) highlighted the number of national sickness absences due to work related stress and depression. She began her session by inviting the audience to take a few deep breaths followed by one minute of reflection to ‘check in with oneself’.
Delegates were asked to consider what emotion their work evokes in them and what coping strategies they use to manage them. A short animated film was shown to demonstrate how stress impacts the mind and body. The audience heard how critical it is to have ways to regulate themselves to prevent being overwhelmed.
Jill has her own business in the wellbeing sector called Positive Steps UK and is a founder member
of the Restorative Clinical Supervision programme, which operates in South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust. The programme is delivered across many settings to a wide range of care professionals and includes workshops to enhance wellbeing and performance for individuals
and teams.
An important part of her work is restorative supervision where practitioners dealing with heavy caseloads are offered psychological support – listening, supporting and finding ways to cope in difficult situations.
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Community Practitioner would like to hear from any individuals or teams who have found innovative ways towards wellbeing in the workplace. Share your experiences, and your work could be published in the journal or/and online. Simply email editor Aviva Attias.
Image credit | Positive Steps UK
