“You’ll need to grow a thicker skin!” by Jane McNeice
“You’ll need to grow a thicker skin!” I half wondered what the senior colleague was saying at the time, my highly visual brain dragging me to a literal vision of thickening skin tissue. Eventually, I understood it to be that I needed to toughen up, not cry to the point of inconsolability, and to have some control. It was 1995, I was 19. I had a 20-week-old baby at home, an extremely low mood, and I had started a new job 12 weeks earlier due to a lack of understanding of my maternity rights and...
Read MoreReturn to Work Employer “It’s OK” Pledge, by Jane McNeice
When any employee is returning to work after a period of absence, we have things as employers that we may need to do to ease them back into new or changed systems, practices, procedures, and relationships. These help the returner to work to feel included, up-to-date with what is happening, valued, and illustrate that we care about their wellbeing. Coming back to work without any planning can cause lots of unnecessary stress on employees and prevents employers gaining the best from their...
Read MoreOne Challenge Too Many, By Jane McNeice
Statistics included within Youth Mental Health First Aid tell us the extent, that we know of, of poor mental health in children and young people. Nowhere does this become more salient, than when I read my late brothers self-written story of his experience of poor mental health and learning disabilities during his childhood, particularly following his transfer to a special needs school which could further accommodate his needs, “The school was very supportive which was good, as at the age of 10...
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