Being resilient is super important in this ever-changing world, especially for people who work in social service and education. These jobs are tough, with lots of challenges every day. This makes it critical to identify methods for enhancing the mental health of social workers and educators. Resilience is more than just the capacity to endure hardships. It’s the ability to handle the difficulties of the most important work. This blog covers the importance of resilience, particularly for social service workers and teachers, as well as how to sustain resilience in the face of difficulty.
Challenges Social Workers and Educators Face
In these fields, where direction and kindness are valued highly, social workers’ and teachers’ mental health is extremely important. Let’s examine the difficulties encountered by these committed people, highlighting the significance of mental health to guarantee their ability to keep having a good influence in their important jobs.
- Feeling Exhausted: Assisting others, particularly in difficult situations, can leave you feeling extremely worn out and agitated.
- Having Too Much Work: There’s a ton of work to do, like paperwork and finding new ways to teach. It can be a lot and make you feel stressed. Spending more time working is a challenge for many people in this industry. (Craik, 2019)
- Feeling Tired of Caring: Always hearing about other people’s tough times can make you feel tired and make it hard to care as much.
Why Mental Health Matters for People Who Help and Teach
In jobs where you help others or teach, it’s super important to think about how you feel. Let’s look at the challenges faced by people who help and teach, like social service workers and teachers, and why it’s really important to focus on feeling good mentally.
- Enhancing Work Performance:
People perform better at work when they look after their mental health. (Lu, et. al, 2022) This makes them more capable of managing stress, making wise choices, and providing the finest assistance to others. - Being Resilient under Adversity:
Maintaining mental well-being contributes to one’s strength. It implies that they’re capable of overcoming adversity, rising to the occasion, and maintaining an optimistic outlook. (Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004) - Making a Happy Workplace:
When everyone cares about mental health, it makes the workplace a happy and supportive place. People feel good about their jobs, talk openly, and help each other out. (Lu, et. al, 2022) - Feeling Good Personally:
In both personal and professional life, happiness is paramount. Taking good care of one’s mental health allows effective stress management so one can enjoy fulfilling lives, and succeed professionally.
It’s not only a good idea, but critically vital, to consider one’s mental health when working in helping and teaching roles. Those who assist and educate can continue to have a positive influence on the lives of others by being aware of the difficulties, establishing a supportive work environment, and making little but effective efforts to take care of our mental health.
Developing Resilience at Work: Easy Steps to Success
Resilience is essential for helping people overcome setbacks and traverse the ups and downs of their career journey in the dynamic and occasionally demanding workplace. The following easy actions can help promote resilience in the workplace:
- Thinking Positively:
By concentrating on solutions rather than problems, you can foster a positive mindset. Accept obstacles as chances for development and education, and reaffirm that failures are just temporary. (Lu, et. al, 2022) It is also important to remember that everyone has a choice of how much they want to help themselves, and when they want to change. Organisational goals may add pressure, and it is key to remember to focus on what are the things that are in your control. - Successful Interaction:
Open and honest channels of communication should be established between supervisors and colleagues. (Bucăţa & Rizescu, 2017) Working in an emotionally safe environment where people share problems and collaborate to discover solutions makes it easier to overcome hurdles at work.
Identifying unhealthy workplace interactions can be the first step to heading towards a less stressful environment. Sometimes, we have to make tough choices to voice out our discomfort to move forward. - Time Management:
Prioritise tasks and manage time effectively. Break down big tasks into smaller, more manageable steps, and set realistic goals. This approach helps prevent feeling overwhelmed and enhances a sense of control. - Adaptability:
Accept change and have a flexible attitude. Understand that the workplace is dynamic and that having a resilient mindset involves being adaptable to changes. Adaptable people can deal with uncertainty more easily. (Tugade & Fredrickson,2004) - Self-Care:
Make self-care a priority if you want to keep your physical and emotional health. Take regular breaks, play engaging hobbies, and maintain a healthy work-life balance. Taking care of oneself reduces burnout and increases resilience. (Gómez-Borges, et. al, 2022) - Learn from Setbacks:
Consider failures as teaching opportunities. Consider difficulties, note lessons discovered, and apply this understanding to future decision-making. Overcoming challenges with a growth mindset opens up new possibilities. - Build a Support System:
Encourage relationships with friends, mentors, and co-workers. Having a solid support network gives you a place to talk about your experiences, get new insights, and get assistance when things go hard. (Jabbar, et. al, 2023) - Establishing Objectives:
Establish attainable and reasonable goals. Long-term goals can be broken down into smaller benchmarks to foster a sense of achievement along the road, which enhances resilience overall. - Mindfulness Practices:
Include mindfulness practices in your everyday activities. In the middle of a hectic workday, techniques like deep breathing, meditation, or quick pauses can help manage stress, improve attention, and foster calm. (Bostock, et.al, 2019) - Honour accomplishments:
No matter how tiny, acknowledge and appreciate your individual and group accomplishments. Acknowledging accomplishments improves mood, creates a happy atmosphere at work, and strengthens resilience. (Tugade & Fredrickson,2004)
People can develop resilience in the workplace by adopting these easy actions into their daily work routines. This will make them more capable of handling changes, rising to the occasion, and succeeding in their professional endeavours.
How InPsychful Can Help
InPsychful offers resilience-building workshops tailored for the workforce and teachers. These sessions provide practical tools and strategies to navigate professional challenges, fostering a resilient mindset.
Access a wealth of mental health resources designed to help individuals cope with pressure, rejection, and societal labels. Our platform provides valuable insights, articles, and expert advice to support mental well-being.
InPsychful understands that everyone’s journey is unique. Through the connections we make between users, mentors and mental health professionals, our platform provides individualised support to help people on their journey toward resilience.
Become a part of a helpful group of others who have experienced comparable difficulties. InPsychful emphasises that everyone is more than the difficulties they have had by providing a platform for people to raise one another, share stories, and exchange experiences.
To help instructors foster resilience in their kids, InPsychful offers training and tools. Our goal in developing instructors’ resilience is to have a beneficial knock-on effect in the classroom.
At InPsychful, we consider resilience to be a path of personal development and empowerment rather than merely a characteristic. Our mission is to assist teachers and people in the workforce in realising their innate potential, overcoming social labels, and building a resilient mindset that propels them toward success and fulfilment.
References:
Christine Craik (2019) Social Work Education: Challenges and Opportunities, Australian Social Work, 72:2, 129-132, DOI: 10.1080/0312407X.2019.1566479
Lu X, Yu H, Shan B. Relationship between Employee Mental Health and Job Performance: Mediation Role of Innovative Behaviour and Work Engagement. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 May 28;19(11):6599. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19116599. PMID: 35682185; PMCID: PMC9180763.
Bucăţa, George and Rizescu, Marius. 2017/03/01. The Role of Communication in Enhancing Work Effectiveness of an Organization, DOI: 10.1515/raft-2017-0008, Land Forces Academy Review
Tugade MM, Fredrickson BL. Resilient individuals use positive emotions to bounce back from negative emotional experiences. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2004 Feb;86(2):320-33. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.86.2.320. PMID: 14769087; PMCID: PMC3132556.
Gómez-Borges, A., Zuberbühler, M. J. P., Martínez, I. M., and Salanova, M. (2022). Self-care at Work Matters: How Job and Personal Resources mediate between Self-Care and Psychological Well-being. Journal of Work and Organisational Psychology, 38(3), 231 – 239. https://doi.org/10.5093/jwop2022a15
Jabbar, J. A., Haider, S., and Qureshi, M. U. (2023). Moderated Mediation between High Performance Work Systems (HPWS) and Employee Voice Behavior: The Role of Psychological Safety and Supportive Leadership. Journal of Work and Organisational Psychology, 39(3), 145 – 156. https://doi.org/10.5093/jwop2023a15
Bostock S, Crosswell AD, Prather AA, Steptoe A. Mindfulness on-the-go: Effects of a mindfulness meditation app on work stress and well-being. J Occup Health Psychol. 2019 Feb;24(1):127-138. doi: 10.1037/ocp0000118. Epub 2018 May 3. PMID: 29723001; PMCID: PMC6215525.