Mental Health Week 2022: #GetReal About Helping Others
May 6, 2022 - Defence Stories
With Mental Health Week underway, it is a great time to continue conversations about mental health with your friends, family and colleagues, and reflect on what empathy can look like. Empathy is the ability to both understand and share someone else’s feelings or experiences. It is done so by imagining what it would be like to be in that person’s situation. Being empathetic encourages compassion and fosters healthy relationships with those around us.
Reaching out to someone who may be experiencing mental health challenges can have a huge impact. Sometimes simply asking “How are you doing?” with true curiosity can help someone feel valued and heard. When having empathetic conversations, we must practice active listening. Here are six tips for effective active listening:
- Express that you are there to listen
- Remove distractions
- Put yourself in their shoes
- Be present
- Offer an attentive ear
- Validate their feelings
For more details, read the full list of steps to the art of listening by the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) (You are now leaving the Government of Canada website).
When reflecting on the empathetic conversations that you have this week, consider ways to continue these conversations throughout the year. We all play a role supporting one another and combatting the stigma associated with mental health, and we can work towards this together.
Please find some suggestions and resources below that will help you to #GetReal about mental health:
- It is okay to not be okay. Don’t be afraid to seek help if you need it. Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provides free and confidential, short-term professional counselling and crisis services to public service employees and their families by phone and online chat and the Canadian Forces Member Assistance Program (CFMAP) is also confidential and available for all Regular Force members, Reserve Class Members, Cadets, Rangers and their families.
- Visit the Defence Team’s Mental Health Week 2022 web page to learn about the various activities taking place this week.
- Download the CMHA’s Mental Health Week Toolkit (You are now leaving the Government of Canada website) to find resources for your video calls and social media. Stay connected by using the hashtags #GetReal and #MentalHealthWeek.
- Participate in the “#GetReal for Mental Health Week: Preventing and Managing Burnout at Work” virtual event hosted by the Canadian School of Public Service on May 5.
- Explore articles by the CMHA on practicing empathy (You are now leaving the Government of Canada website).
- Defence Team members can also access a variety of resources and information to help maintain and improve our mental health and overall personal well-being.
Page details
- Date modified: