The Mental Health & Wellbeing survey allows people to assess their own mental wellbeing and identify which aspects of their life are potentially hindering their mental health and happiness. The platform then provides employees with practical action plans and resources to enable and empower them to start improving their own mental wellbeing at home and at work, as well as give the organisation & managers an overview of which areas of wellbeing employees are struggling most with.
Here we look at the 4 main areas within the model.
Comfort
The Comfort area identifies how well our needs for privacy, sleep and movement are being met, and suggests ways of getting the met better.
These needs enable our mind / body system to calm down, rest and heal. Privacy enables our brain to be offline and rest. Sleep heals and is restorative to both our body (enabling physical recovery) and brain (enabling both physical and psychological recovery). Physical activity helps us burn off harmful, unused stress hormones lessening both physical and psychological symptoms of stress, hence improving our mental wellbeing.
These are the 3 key indicators in the Comfort area:
We need our own time - space and time to stop, review what is happening, consolidate our experiences and learn from them.
We must get enough good quality sleep to stay mentally and physically healthy, and to function and be productive.
We need to be able to move our body, exercise our muscles.
To learn about the sub areas for this domain click here.
Connection
The Connection areas identify how well our needs for emotional connection, attention exchange and belonging are being met.
We humans evolved as pack animals, and we still have a primitive need for togetherness with our fellow humans. We feel safe when we have people in our life. Loneliness and isolation are one of the main causes of mental health challenges in the modern world.
There are 4 key indicators in the Connection area:
We need emotional connection to others and have at least one person in our life who accepts us for who we are, who will support and defend us.
We need to be able to give attention to others.
We need to be able to receive attention from others.
We need to feel that we belong to something outside our immediate family, so we can feel we are part of a community, workplace, world.
To learn about the sub areas for this domain click here.
Capability
The Capability area identifies how well our needs for achievement, competence, meaning, and purpose are met, how often we feel we are able to manage our emotions and think straight.
A sense of achievement helps us feel our life is moving forward and makes us feel useful, our competencies help us achieve things. A sense of meaning makes life worth living, giving us determination to keep going despite obstacles/adversities. Our emotions are the driving force and motivation behind all our behaviour but can impact our mental wellbeing both negatively and positively. Our ability to think straight, focus and concentrate, for example, are negatively impacted by stress, anxiety, depression, and any other strong emotions.
There are the 4 key indicators in the Capability area:
We need to have a sense of achievement and competence.
We need to have a reason to get up in the morning and feel that our life has a meaning and purpose.
It is useful to improve the way how we manager our emotions.
It is useful to improve our ability to think straight, focus and concentrate.
To learn about the sub areas for this domain click here.
Core
The Core elements identify how well our core psychological needs for safety, control and respect are being met.
Our need for security, control, and respect are the most primitive human needs – we share them with other animals. Any threat to them is often felt immediately and strongly, in our brain and body. Not getting these needs met can have a great impact on our mental wellbeing.
There are the 5 key indicators in the Core area:
We need to have our physical needs met to maintain our health.
We all need to feel safe in our environment - physically, emotionally, financially.
We need to feel we can live free from worry and be in control of our worries.
We need to feel we have autonomy and control over what happens to us, around us and inside us.
We need to feel we are respected, accepted, and valued.
To learn about the sub areas for this domain click here.