Support for staff at UQ
Many people experience issues and concerns at some time in their lives that may affect their wellbeing, general functioning and work performance. Professional support and services are available to help staff with a range of concerns:
- health issues
- personal and work relationships
- personal issues
- workplace change and pressures.
We need to support our work colleagues who have a mental illness, or who may be experiencing emotional distress. Mental health issues are likely to affect almost half of the Australian population at some stage in their lives, so encouraging these conversations at work is the right thing to do.
Counselling and psychological support
- The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provides confidential wellbeing services for staff and their immediate family members.
- The UQ Psychology Clinic can assist with a range of psychological issues in children, adolescents, adults, older adults, couples and families.
- The UQ Wellness program provides staff with the opportunity to participate in health-enhancing activities while at work.
- The Workplace Psychologist assists with workplace management advice for staff and supervisors impacted by a mental health condition
- The Staff Assistance Services Procedures [5.70.06] outlines the internal and external services available to staff to help resolve problems that may their affect work performance or ability to function socially within the work environment.
R U OK? Day
At UQ we encourage you to promote R U OK? Day in your local area. Promoting R U OK? Day at UQ is an excellent way of showing your colleagues that you care about mental health and are not afraid to talk about mental health matters.
Training for staff
You can participate in a range of training opportunities to:
- help understand mental health
- know how to provide help to those around you
- develop strategies and techniques to protect against mental illness.
These include:
- Mental Health First Aid (MHFA): teaches adults (18 years and over) how to provide initial support to other adults who are at risk of developing a mental illness or experiencing a mental health crisis
- MHFA for the Suicidal Person: designed to equip you with the skills and knowledge to safely have a conversation with a suicidal person and ways to keep them safe
- MHFA Refresher Accreditation: update your MHFA accreditation with this short course refresher training
- Supporting the Welfare of HDRs during Candidature: for new and experienced RHD advisors on mental health awareness, boundary setting, concerning behaviours and support available
- Mindful Leadership Program: developing resilient, valuable and innovative leaders with a focus on enhanced performance
- Resilience Taster: introductory strategies and insight into how to build personal resiliency when dealing with workplace challenges
- Resiliency in the Workplace: strategies and insight into how to build personal resiliency in dealing with workplace challenges
- Supervisory Skills in Animal-Related Occupations: for supervisors who are responsible for staff who work with animals to help guard against compassion fatigue.
- Compassion Fatigue in Animal-Related Occupations: awareness and education for employees working in animal-related occupations, focusing on compassion fatigue and the unique stressors associated with working with animals
Managers
If you supervise or manage someone who is off work due to illness, it's important that you remain in contact to show your support for them. If they are away from work for more than a few weeks, speak to your HR team.
You can also:
- contact the MyCoach for People Leaders service through Benestar, a telephone service to support managers and supervisors
- talk to the Workplace Psychologist for UQ-specific advice for managing staff with mental health concerns.
Other resources for managers to create healthy workplaces and support staff:
- Return to work: helps anyone involved in the process of returning to work after absence due to depression, an anxiety disorder or a related mental health problem
- Heads Up: resources to help managers develop workplace skills so that they can create mentally healthy workplaces
- Improving workplace mental health: workplace skills for managers
- Mental health first aid in the workplace: guidelines providing mental health first aid to a co-worker or employee you manage
- Preventing psychological injury under work health and safety laws: a tip sheet from Safe Work Australia.
Guides for UQ managers and supervisors:
- Keeping in touch with employees on extended leave (PDF, 766KB)
- Working with a disability, injury or health condition (PDF, 671KB)
- Supporting staff following critical incidents and crises (PDF, 53KB).
Handling workplace stress
We know that stress is a normal response to workplace demands. It helps us stay alert and perform at our best. But managing stress so that it doesn't damage our mental health can be challenging.
Other resources include: