Session #4 of Transformational Leadership: Leading From the Inside Out 2021 Program
May 11, 2022
Wellbeing at Work: Cultivating Resilience and Supporting Mental Health
When everything we’ve taken for granted is called into question; when the rules are uncertain; when the future is unpredictable; when we personally and collectively feel anxiety or experience depression; when organizations and resources are in jeopardy…leaders must take care to prioritize employee mental health and find opportunities to cultivate resilience.
As employers and leaders build and improve workplace culture, they also must seek ways to address workplace stress and mental health. Workplaces can play an essential part in maintaining positive mental health. They can give people the opportunity to feel productive and be a strong contributor to wellbeing. Yet it can also be a stressful environment that contributes to the rise of mental health problems and illnesses. With the right plan and tools, employers can develop protective factors against stress and build a resilient team, meaning employees can handle work stress and perform better.
When developing approaches to building employee resilience, it is important to remember that it looks and feels different to various cultures and people. In order to develop and grow resilience as a skill, it is crucial that we look at it from a cultural lens. When we look at resilience and mental health with a cultural lens, it helps us to better understand ourselves, our teams and how we can best support and integrate wellbeing for all.
Resilience is an outstanding state to have, it is related to many positive outcomes, and—perhaps most important of all—it is a quality that we can improve upon. While It is not possible to learn to become resilient in a half day session, our session will provide time to reflect on resilience using a cultural lens and help you take some small steps to improve your resilience in yourself and others.
In this session we will discuss:
- How to build mental health awareness in your organization and how to respond to challenging situations to create a healthier, safer workplaces
- Cultural dimensions of mental health and resilience
- How to apply a cultural lens and why it is important
- How to develop and implement resilience-centered practices in workplaces
- How to develop resilience skills in yourself as a leader
- How to support a resilient team and help develop resilience in others
ABOUT THE PRESENTER:
Yvonne Asare-Bediako, Black Community Liaison Advisor, City of London
Dr. Yvonne Asare-Bediako is a brilliant educator and researcher with over 15 years of practical experience in mental health education, promotion and programming. She holds a Doctorate degree in Medical sociology and has worked in various capacities exploring her interests in the intersection between mental health and social outcomes. Her work involves an integrative understanding of the role of stress and psychosocial resources on a person’s health, and adopts a critical lens into how these patterns relationships with those within ones social network. Her recent work in this area include working with community and government agencies to educate individuals and practitioners on the psychosocial consequences of unresolved mental health problems, and developing, implementing and evaluating resilience-centered programs to support vulnerable groups within society. Dr. Asare-Bediako has also played a leading role in the development of internationally recognized clinical (including the interRAI 0 – 3) and resilience-based assessment tools. She is well informed about the factors that trigger and exacerbate mental health crisis and is currently at the forefront of mental health education and promotion at the university, where she teaches.
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