Managing Mental Health in Educators

Mental illness is rapidly becoming the leading cause of long-term workplace absence in Australia.   It has been estimated that on average, 5 times as many work days are lost to mental health related issues than are lost to physical ailments or injury.

Work related mental health conditions usually arise due to an inability to manage stressful situations as diverse as interpersonal issues between staff through to unrealistic parent expectations.

Prolonged exposure to unmanaged stress can leads to anxiety, depression, feelings of inadequacy, sleep problems and fatigue.   These conditions often impact an employee’s performance and productively leading to eventual inefficiency and poor judgment.

What will the seminar look at

• What is work related stress and what are its most common causes from workplace bullying to managing workplace conflict, parent interaction and reportable incidents.
• How does work related stress impact on the decisions staff make on a daily basis.   The known psychological and physical health impact of workplace stress and how these conditions directly impact the quality of your education and care program.
• Simple measures and practices to implement that will foster a mentally healthy workplace and resilience in staff.   Identifying problems and developing and implementing solutions.
• Managing staff with ongoing mental health conditions.   Your regulatory obligations and management of staff with ongoing mental health issues and medication needs.
• When is a mental health issue not a mental health issue.   Processes to manage invalid claims and not end up in hot water.

WHAT WILL YOU TAKE AWAY?

• A copy of the seminar presentation.
• Improved understanding of mental health issues in the workplace.
• Steps to follow to support employee’s resilience to stress and better ways to manage conflict between staff or with parents
• A copy of the DJMIR Mental Health Support Pack that contains resource and support tools that participants can use to assist staff at their workplace. (free to seminar participants ONLY)
• Telephone support for employers struggling with staff mental health issues (Free to DJMIR members)

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

Approved Providers, Executive Committee Members Service Directors and Administrators and lead educators.