This year the focus for Mental Health Awareness Week (14-20 May) is stress. Research has shown that two thirds of us experience a mental health problem in our lifetimes, and stress is a key factor in this. By tackling stress, we can go a long way to tackle mental health problems such as anxiety and depression, and, in some instances, self-harm and suicide.
At the National Legal Service we are aware that stress and poor mental health can have a major effect on people. As a firm that specialises in family law we often deal with clients who are going through a difficult time. A lot of our work consists of supporting victims of domestic violence and we do our best to support them through what is a stressful process.
In turn, we support our own employees who are constantly faced with cases that are complex and involve clients that are vulnerable. We have a relaxed atmosphere where by the staff feel as though they can speak to one another on their teams regarding any difficulties they may have with their cases. We are also aware that all staff have a life of their own outside of work and that can add to the elements of stress that can impact work life.
Mental health to us is equally as important as physical health and it is vital that we focus on the well-being of our staff and our clients. We ensure that everyone in our team knows that they have a part to play at the making the workplace a positive one.
In the future, we hope to put in to place coffee mornings and other activities whereby the staff can take a break and just engage with one another. We hope that this will lead to building stronger relationships at work so that as a firm we can support each other better to stay physically and mentally well.
