MENTAL HEALTH: Why you should be taking time out to focus on your mental health

Mental health will be front of mind for tourism businesses across the state with operators and their staff being encouraged to take time to look after themselves following the rollercoaster of COVID.

A year-long support package is being delivered by the Tourism Industry Council Tasmania, after receiving $100,000 from a $20 million State Government COVID-19 Small Business Sustainability and Recovery Assistance Package. “As a tourism industry we continue to confront some of the most challenging, disruptive and uncertain market conditions any of us could ever imagine,” TICT CEO Luke Martin says. “We owe it to ourselves, our families, our staff and colleagues, to prioritise through 2021 our mental and physical well-being, and that of the people around us.”

The first of the TICT’s support elements are already underway, with a Wellbeing and Resilience Roadshow hitting the road - delivering workshops across the state in person and online. The workshops are being hosted by Dr Melanie Irons, a psychologist, consultant, researcher, qualified personal trainer and Pilates instructor, who is being joined by Tasmanian tourism champion Bianca Welsh and Mitch McPherson from Stay ChatTY. They will challenge, inspire, energise, and up-skill you. Having face-to-face interactions with owneroperators, employers, management and staff in the tourism sector is something Dr Irons is looking forward to. Details to book your place at different sessions around the state are available via the TICT’s website. She is pragmatic but compassionate and on page 23 poses a simple question in a short article she has written for TICT Quarterly to ensure everyone takes the time for a mental health “check-up”. Lifeline is also delivering free training to small business owners and staff through a Minding Your Business program, which offers a range of training courses ranging from one hour to two days in length. Lifeline Tasmania Business Development Manager – Training and Support, Clare Pearson, says its hoped the program will be delivered in regional areas in the coming months as a follow up to the roadshow. Ms Pearson says the last year has been challenging but the one positive to come from the pandemic has been the strengthened focus on mental health in Tasmania and a willingness for organisations and communities to work together to support the most vulnerable Tasmanians.

Lifeline has been operating in Tasmania for over 40 years providing the community with education and support to strengthen mental health and prevent suicide. The not-forprofit organisation employs over 50 staff and has 400 volunteers.

Ms Pearson says the organisation needed to be nimble and proactive during the COVID crisis. “With support from the state government Lifeline Tasmania set up A Tasmanian lifeline (1800 98 44 34) to ensure that Tasmanians who were struggling with situational distress and social isolation and loneliness had a Tasmanian-specific line to call to get the psychosocial support and referral to appropriate services. “In the early days of A Tasmanian lifeline the majority of calls were from older Tasmanians who were struggling with being isolated from family friends or just the ability to connect in their local community. “We also received a significant number of calls from younger Tasmanians who were separated from family on the mainland or internationally and who were feeling fear for the future. As time has progressed we are seeing a larger number of people who have been impacted financially by the pandemic and who are strug-gling with issues of relationship break down, financial distress and have been impacted by deterioration of the mental health as a result of COVID. “People who call A Tasmanian lifeline will speak with a trained support worker, here in Tasmania, who has a good understanding of other services that are avail-able to provide further assistance, should that be required. The referrals we make are tailored to each caller’s circumstances. If one of our Support Workers doesn’t know the answer to a particular question, we will find out and call you back.”

MENTAL HEALTH CHECK-UP BY DR MELANIE IRONS

IT’S A FAMILIAR STORY

Put a frog in cold water, and slowly increase the temperature, and if the increase is gradual enough, the frog won’t notice the temperature changing – until it’s too late.

While the tone of the story is unpleasant; its origin mysterious; and the underlying science behind it is actually false, the story still has immense value (although, not for the frog). It illustrates the psychological construct of ‘creeping normality’: an ‘objectionable change that is accepted, because it occurs slowly’. It is the weeds slowly spreading across the front garden, the smog gradually smothering a city, or the increasingly uncivil communication between colleagues. The changes are slow, and subtle, and a response is not initiated – until the situ-ation has deteriorated badly, often beyond control. How does this relate to mental and physical wellbeing? It works both ways. Some of us do not see the warning signs that the water around us is getting warmer. Our mental and physical wellbeing is deteriorating, but we are busy, overworked, too many pressures: who has time to sit down and take care of themselves? We ignore the quiet cues and clues our minds and bodies are trying to send. In the other direction, some of us are thriving, flourishing even, and our resilience is building, but we are not necessarily noticing that the normality is creeping in a positive direction – that the temperature of our water is actually cooling down. We miss the opportunities to celebrate our successes, and our increased capacity to cope. We might end up under-estimating our potential. Coming together for a workshop, in the context of mental and physical wellbeing, helps us to hit pause. To stop. To take a second. To listen to others and reflect on their stories as a reference point. To take a moment to come back to basics, be inspired, connect with others, and do an in-themoment assessment of our wellbeing. It’s not really about the content you might hear, or the stories that are shared, or the ideas that are generated in a workshop – although these things are deeply valuable.

It’s more about taking a moment in time to check the temperature around you, so that objectionable changes in your life, that are occurring slowly and that you may not have noticed if you didn’t hit pause, are not left to deterio-rate further. How is the temperature around you?