Meet our Mental Health First Aiders
Mental Health Awareness week runs between 12th-18th May and aims to raise awareness of mental wellbeing and celebrate the importance of community and teams.
As a veterinary team we not only look after your adored pets but know it’s important to look after each other too. Caring for your pets can, at times, be emotionally challenging. One minute we are welcoming a new puppy to the practice, the next having a difficult conversation with a regular much-loved pet. As a caring profession, we can’t help but get emotionally involved (even if we remain professional) and we also worry about our patients after hours as if they were our own too.
To support our teams, we are lucky to have 3 members of staff who are qualified Mental Health First Aiders (MHFA). Judi our Reception Manager, Receptionist Faye and Claire Head of the Nursing team. This means they have all completed an internationally recognised two-day training course with Rise Mental Health.
The role of our MHFA’s is to be the first point of contact for anyone experiencing poor mental health and offer initial first aid support. They are trained to spot the first signs of someone who may need support and can effectively signpost them to resources or additional services. All our team also have access to an employee assistance program which provides, among other things free individual counselling sessions.
Most frequently though our MHFA’s find that offering someone a non-judgemental listening ear and a safe space to talk can make a huge difference to how someone is feeling. That and of course finding some cute pets to cuddle is the BEST therapy at work!
