WELCOME VIDEO
IHA developed a Mental Health and Well-Being Digital Toolkit in conjunction with our Acute Care Online Training Program, funded by the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation. The digital toolkit is a collection of resources for individuals to assess their mental health and provide guiding practices of how to appropriately take care of their mental health, as well as resources for organizations to assess and engage in mental health planning on a broader scale.
The toolkit starts with the welcome video below, followed by quick (5-10 minute) activities, assessments to better understand your needs, more in-depth learning modules and finishes with additional resources to address the growing mental health crisis, and to offer support to healthcare workers who have experienced compounding pressures over the past several years, as well as promote healthy minds that are more able to provide quality care to patients. This toolkit addresses burn-out, resilience, pressures in and out of the workplace and much more.
QUICK (5-10 MINUTE) ACTIVITIES
We have compiled a list of well-being and engagement activities and resources that each take no more than 5-10 minutes to complete below. To use these quick activities, click a link below, a new window will open, and you can start when you’re ready to begin.
- National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability (NCHPAD): Guided Meditation (see additional resources)
- CNN: Dana Santasis a certified strength and conditioning specialist and mind-body coach in professional sports: Guided Yoga Session, low impact
- San Diego Zoo: menu of live cameras at the San Diego Zoo (penguins, koalas, tigers, elephants, and more!) via Healthsource Solutions (see additional resources)
- Mental Health America: 16-question survey to gauge stress via Fort Healthcare (see additional resources)
- Helpfulgames: 6 different levels of a classic matching game
- Washington Post: matching game, timed and with increasing number of tiles
Additional Resources:
- National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability (NCHPAD); curated series of videos for meditation and yoga.
- Health Source Solutions (an employee wellness company); website offers seven categories of wellness/resilience resources from creative activities to meditation to animal cameras.
- Verywell Mind (“resource for reliable, compassionate, and up-to-date information on mental health topics”); list of apps by focus/purpose/audience
ASSESSMENTS
Below we have included a selection of assessments for your usage.
Individuals – use the “Individual Mental Health and Well-Being Self-Assessment” to reflect on your current mindset and stress levels. Then take the learned information and use the resources to come up with a wellness plan.
Organizations – use the “Mental Health and Well-Being Organizational Assessment and Implementation Planning Tool” to gauge where your organization currently is in terms of prioritizing employee wellness, create goals towards improvement, and how to achieve those goals. The resource section will assist in creating a strategy to forge a path towards a more comprehensive and intentional mental health and well-being focus.
MORE IN-DEPTH (15-20 MINUTE) LEARNING MODULES
There are six learning modules linked below designed to help individuals and organizations explore basic aspects of wellness and well-being on a more in-depth level than the activities above. Each module should take no more than 15-20 minutes to complete. To use these modules, click a link below, a new window will open, and you can “start course” when you’re ready to begin.
RESOURCES AND OTHER USEFUL LINKS
Below we have included a selection of resources and other useful links for your usage. This resource section will assist in creating a strategy to forge a path towards a more comprehensive and intentional mental health and well-being focus.
Other Useful Links
Below we have included a selection of additional resources for your usage.
VIA Institute; free version of a survey to identify character strengths; offers more thorough assessments and reports for a fee.
Fingerprint for Success; free version of a survey to identify strengths; other services are available for a fee.
LEARN MORE
Under a grant from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation, the Iroquois Healthcare Association (IHA) and Advocates for Human Potential, Inc. (AHP) have developed a Mental Health and Well-Being Digital Toolkit for use by healthcare employees.
The idea for creating a Mental Health and Well-being Digital Toolkit originated from a recognition that in order to take care of others, we must first take care of ourselves. What has always been demanding work became nearly overwhelming during the pandemic and has continued post-pandemic. The need to focus on wellness and well-being both in our personal and our work lives has never been more important. And we think about everything from diet, exercise, and sleep to managing stress, maintaining relationships, and fulfilling professional goals to honoring values, and creating a sense of belonging.
Taking care of yourself will help you better manage stress and avoid burnout. When you are at your best, you contribute to a workplace culture that honors and offers support. And when you and your colleagues work from a place of well-being, you will be able to deliver a higher quality of engagement and care to your patients and clients.
This Mental Health and Well-Being Digital Toolkit offers a starting point to assess wellness and well-being, either at the individual level or in terms of organizational wellness programming.
For the individual, this digital Toolkit contains a handful of short five to ten-minute activities designed to let you step away from a stressful situation, take a break and reset. This might include a guided breathing exercise or a quick virtual trip via live zoo cameras. There are also a number of learning modules if you want to explore some basic aspects of wellness and well-being, including topics such as burnout, empathy, and emotional intelligence. Finally, there are also links to additional online resources focused on health and wellness.
For organizations, the Toolkit offers a Workplace Well-being Survey to assess current well-being focused programming, an Implementation Planning Tool to guide program development, a learning module on building team culture, and a handful of factsheets for supervisors and management.
No matter how you use this Toolkit, we hope it offers a source for language, definitions, and understanding, so as folks work together to name and address challenges around health, wellness, and well-being, they can operate from a common frame of reference.
If you find that upon reflection, your wellness or well-being needs are beyond the scope of the resources in this Toolkit, we encourage you to reach out to someone in your network. Have that conversation. Seek support.