Gordon Graham
Category: Public Safety

Gordon Graham here with Today’s Tip from Lexipol. Today’s Tip is for all my friends in public safety. I’d like to offer some suggestions to help improve mental wellness.

Mental wellness helps us think, feel, connect and function. It also helps us build resilience, allowing us to grow and flourish as people.

Did you know that each year, almost 44 million adults in the U.S. suffer from mental health issues? With numbers like that, I think it’s crucial to emphasize staff mental wellness. Yes folks, I said “mental wellness,” not “mental health.” So right now you might be thinking, “Don’t they mean the same thing?” And the answer to that is “no.”

Mental wellness helps us think, feel, connect and function. It also helps us build resilience, allowing us to grow and flourish as people. It’s much more than just the absence of mental illness.

Mental wellness includes four dimensions. The mental dimension is how we think, process, understand, and use information. The emotional dimension is how we feel, manage, and express our emotions. The social dimension is how we connect with others, helping us build and maintain relationships. And the psychological dimension is how we act or function, combining external information with internal capacities to make decisions.

Now you might be wondering how this all ties in to staff mental wellness. I’m getting to that. When agency leaders understand mental wellness and its dimensions, they can identify and prioritize activities and efforts that focus on the mental wellness of their staff members.

What are some ways that agencies can prioritize mental wellness? Check in with your staff often. Provide wellness resources and encourage your people to get help before a crisis occurs. Do your best to help those who may be struggling. Lead by example and display a healthy work-life balance. And for heaven’s sake, whatever you do, don’t ignore the warning signs of stress, burnout and compassion fatigue.

Never forget that your staff are your most important resource. Apply the four dimensions of mental wellness to help them take care of themselves and each other.

And that’s Today’s Tip from Lexipol. Until next time, Gordon Graham signing off.