This week is mental health awareness week, we understand how important mental health is for our team and for our patients.
We wanted to let you know the steps we have taken to improve the mental health for our team and patients.
We have numerous members of our team who have completed the NCFE mental health awareness course which is an intensive 2 part course which requires numerous written exams. The topics include anxiety, stress, post partum psychosis, eating disorders and many more. The course covers identifying mental health, supporting a person and techniques to help overcome mental health. Our most recent staff member to complete the course was our dental nurse Hannah. Hannah says “ myself and family have experienced a really tough time over the past year and the importance of talking has really helped me overcome challenges, I wanted to enrol onto the mental health course so I could learn to help others in the future”
Our practice manager Jodie also holds a mental health certificate and has recently completed a counselling course. Jodie says “I have always wanted to improve my listening skills and I enjoy helping others. I read through the counselling course details and knew it would help learn and enhance my skills to help my team and friends and family. One of the most important areas to helping a person with mental health is listening and being there for someone.”
At the start of the year the practice manager and dental nurse Hannah also completed Dementia Friend training online with Alzheimer’s. They were so impressed by the course that our practice manager enrolled the whole team to complete the training however due to the current covid-19 pandemic the course was postponed we are hoping to train all of our staff as soon as possible.
Jodie says “We understand that dementia can happen at any time of life but statistically affects a higher amount of older people. With this in mind I wanted the whole team to understand how small differences could make a huge difference to a person visiting the practice who is living with dementia. We have created easy to read signs, a marker on the system to flash up so that the dentist and dental nurse are aware and enhanced our interpersonal skills” The dementia Friend scheme has awarded those who have completed with badges which they wear with pride. All staff members have made a personal pledge to help a person they see living with dementia in their local community.
Our dentists and hygienists are familiar with medications used to help a person living with a mental health condition so as a patient you do not need to explain but please do let us know if we can help you in any way. If the dental environment makes you feel more anxious please let our friendly receptionist know we have many calming ways we can implement to help you.
For our team in our staff rooms we have information displayed to ask for help this includes helplines, websites and email addresses. We want to further improve by enrolling our team on a mental health first aid course which we hope to enrol onto later in the year. During the current covid-19 we know the impact on mental health is challenging here are some top tips from the mental health organisation:
For more information on mental health please visit www.mentalhealth.org.uk please do feel free to reach out and give us a call on 0116 2881001 if you want to talk. Alternatively message our Facebook page to see if we can help.
