Tag: Anxiety

Public Libraries

September Reading for Health Book of the Month: How to cope: the welcoming approach to life’s challenges by Dr. Claire Hayes

‘Life can be demanding enough without us causing ourselves greater upset because we “don’t feel happy”. Instead, let’s welcome all our feelings of distress, all our thoughts and beliefs about life’s challenges, and focus on transforming these in a way that is helpful for us.’

In How to Cope, psychologist and clinical director of depression awareness charity Aware Dr Claire Hayes takes a good look at our thoughts and how they can affect us, demonstrating how each of us can use cognitive behavioural principles to help us cope. In a very clear, practical way she shows us how to make sense of our distressing feelings, to become aware of our unhelpful thoughts and our core beliefs, and most of all, to focus on what we can actually do to improve things for ourselves. Rather than trying to suppress or ignore negative thoughts and feelings of distress, she invites us to welcome them as messengers asking us to do something helpful to improve things.

Using her unique techniques such as the ‘Coping Triangle’ and ‘Coping Sentences’, Dr Hayes shows us how to proactively manage life’s challenges, such as pressure, rejection, loss, failure, success and change. Real-life case studies illustrate the success of Dr Hayes’s approach, while practical exercises and advice make it accessible to all readers. How to Cope is the ideal book is for anyone who has suffered from stress, anxiety or depression, and for their friends and family.

The book is currently available for free on the Borrow Box app as an eBook and eAudiobook. It is one of the public library’s always available titles, so it means that you won’t have to queue to borrow the book – just download it instantly. To access this, you will just need a Lancashire Library card (you can apply here if you don’t already have one) and download the Borrow Box app for free from the Google Play or App Store. Alternatively, you could also reserve a physical copy from one of the reopened libraries.

Men’s Health Week

Trying Something New – Improving boys’ and young men’s mental health through sports and creative activities

Boys and young men can face multiple barriers to accessing mental health support, including gender stereotypes which generate stigma around seeking help, concerns around showing vulnerability, and less positive attitudes towards mental health services. The Covid-19 pandemic has had a profound effect on boys’ and young men’s stress and anxiety levels, and this has been particularly marked for young men experiencing racial injustice.

‘Thriving Not Just Surviving’ was a three-year programme funded by Comic Relief to deliver community-based mental health support tailored to the needs of boys and young men. Trying something new is based on Centre for Mental Health’s evaluation of this programme and provides insights into what works when supporting boys and young men.

Read more and download the report here

Lunch and Learn

Mental Health and Wellbeing

Thank-you to everyone who attended our lunch and learn session last week. Our guest speaker Sam Tyrer discussed his own experiences of living with mental health issues and how this influenced his reasons for working for the NHS. He also shared about how he wants his work to influence the outcomes of children and young people and is a fantastic advocate for raising awareness of mental health, the stigma that comes with this and raised some issues that young people are currently facing. Sam shared some really useful guidance for working with young people – or your own children and discussed some useful strategies to apply to cope with your own anxiety or mental health worries.

If you missed the session, you can catch up here: https://nwsis-my.sharepoint.com/:v:/g/personal/katie_roper_lscft_nhs_uk/EepmXm6Rm1FFv4-D18jcKq8Bb_h1962q4ll1CENkJoUoSg (please use your LSCFT email to access.)

We would really appreciate any feedback on these sessions. If you have a few spare minutes we kindly ask you to complete our survey- which should take no longer than 5 minutes to complete:https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/WLHBMSG

You can also follow Sam’s work via his mental health hour: Mental Health Family Hour – YouTube

Our next session will be held in April and will focus on health literacy awareness. We hope to see as many of you there. Please contact katie.roper@lscft.nhs.uk if you would like an invite to this session.

Living and working with complexity

Thinking clearly, acting wisely and staying healthy

The uncertainty and anxiety that come with the experience of complexity can be overwhelming. It can be hard to think clearly and act wisely, and our wellbeing can easily suffer. The Covid-19 pandemic has made these experiences an everyday occurrence for many people, and the need for us to work clearly, wisely and healthily has never been more pressing.

The King’s Fund have put together 3 workshops to lift the lid on complexity. They’ll explore how encouraging ourselves and others to understand and acknowledge the loss of control when faced with complexity can help us, our teams and our wider organisational systems survive and even thrive in conditions of uncertainty. 

The workshops will help you:

  • make sense of the messy reality of complexity, accurately categorise different aspects of that reality and be able to choose appropriate, measured, responses
  • understand your own preferences and strengths in relation to the complexity around you and develop strategies to stretch beyond them
  • help yourself and others be their best during uncertain times.

To find out more or buy your tickets click here.

Mental Health and Wellbeing

Support resources for challenging times

More than six months after the Covid-19 pandemic began many of us are feeling exhausted, anxious and overwhelmed. Now, more than ever, it’s so important to take some time to look after your wellbeing. King’s Fund have put together some useful resources, from ‘wellbeing plans’ to useful toolkits.

Click here to access.

They also offer some top tips for dealing with anxiety and encourage you to think about your breathing:

  • Notice your breathing.  
  • In noticing your breathing connect with how you are feeling physically. 
  • Take a moment to take some deep and slow breaths in and out and count them as you do this. 
  • Ask yourself how aware you are of your breathing patterns.   
  • Our breathing helps inform us of how stressed and/or anxious we might be if we allow ourselves to notice it.  
  • A greater awareness of our breathing can help anchor ourselves in our roles as leaders in these difficult to navigate times.   

Managing anxiety: breathing | The King’s Fund