Young NTUC Peer Supporters Networking Session

 

Last Friday evening, I attended a Young NTUC Peer Supporters Networking Session with guest speakers from Community Health Assessment Team (CHAT), Limitless and Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Council. It was a pretty insightful sharing by professionals in the space and definitely worth attending despite it being on a Friday evening.

Another resource: mindsg.gov.sg actually leads to HealthHub

Some interesting statistics were shared by the organisers (young NTUC) based on a survey done with our working youth (up to age 35).

Work Stressors (Work Boundary/ Workplace Harassment)	Number of respondents who selected this option N=664	% of respondents who selected this option
Poor work-life balance	292	44%
Long working hours	272	42%
Heavy workload	260	39%
Blurred lines between work and personal life	238	36%
Lack of control over working day	162	24%
Bullying behaviour from supervisor/manager	57	9%
Bullying behaviour from colleagues/teammates	45	7%
Sexual harassment at workplace	21	3%

 

Also when asked about areas of support that companies or organisations can provide when considering a mental wellbeing support system at work, the respondents voted as such:

Suggestions	Percentages
Mental Health Day offs	66%
Flexible working hours	64%
Creating a safe culture to talk about mental wellness	57%
More proactive check-ins with employees about their mental well-being	57%
Have a system in place to redistribute workload	52%

Lambert's (1992) Common Factors of Therapeutic Change

I learnt a bit about the behind-the-scenes work by therapists and counsellors (they use co-working space too). CHAT wants to be thought of as Singapore's 'AAA' battery for youth mental health. The triple As also refer to Awareness, Access and Assess. They also had 4 Guiding Principles that could be helpful for educators to note.

1. Every individual, every family, every community has strengths, assets and resources. Some of which are not yet known to themselves.
2. No problem happens all the time. There are always exceptions where people have done something to reduce/survive the problem. (Coping exploration: "What have you found helpful so far?"
3.  Trauma and abuse, illness and struggle may be devastating, but they may also be opportunities for growth. (Think about past successes)
4. We best serve people by collaborating with them

In my 'new' role as a Mental and Emotional Wellness (MEW) lead in the Staff Welfare Committee, I also use a Triple-A analogy but that of the automobiles. My approach is to Assess, Apprise and Act. Thus, I asked a question about assessing colleagues' MEW with it being taboo-ish for some. I was pointed to an assessment tool called iWorkHealth and some examples of reports and a flyer.

The following posters are some of the other resources available on the WSH Council page. They can be really helpful even in schools for teachers.

"I believe the greatest gift I can conceive of having from anyone is to be seen, heard, understood and touched by them. The greatest gift I can give is to see, hear, understand and touch another person."

Virginia Satir,  American author and psychotherapist (recognised for her approach to family therapy)

Other images and video about the appropriate use of language for Mental Health literacy.