Life Links recently visited the Rushey Mead Academy to deliver a recovery education workshop to staff at the academy as part of their mental health and wellbeing session for their professional learning day.
Attended by nearly 40 staff members, the workshop focused on understanding and managing stress and included several engaging activities for staff to carry out in groups, such as exploring their current understanding of what stress is and how it affects our wellbeing. When discussing ways to manage stress, we emphasised the importance of identifying individual signs and symptoms along with introducing some coping tools such as mindfulness.
Stress is our body’s response to the feeling of being under too much mental or emotional pressure, which can often result from a significant life event or situation. Each and every one of us is affected by stress, but it’s important to recognise that we will all react and deal with it a different way. More and more research is highlighting the negative effects of stress on our mental health, with findings from The Mental Health Foundation (MHF) revealing that almost three quarters of people in the UK felt overwhelmed and unable to cope with feelings of stress. We also know that one in three people experience a mental health problem at some point in their life, therefore it is really important that within our local communities we are helping raise awareness and promote understanding about the link between stress and mental health.
Joe, Life Links’ Recovery Workers said:
“We had a great time visiting Rushey Mead Academy and delivering the workshop – it was a really positive day and great to see so many staff engaging in the discussion around stress and mental health. We all experience some form of stress in our daily lives, so finding a way to manage this that works for you is fundamental”.
Thank you to Rushey Mead staff for welcoming us and we hope they gained some insightful information.
