Toolkit

Coronavirus and isolation: supporting yourself and your colleagues

It’s fair to say we’ve never experienced a time like this.

There are lots of messages, advice, opinions and predictions around. Some of it’s pretty drastic, and not all of it agrees – and the uncertainty, in itself, can feel very stressful. Mental Health at Work isn’t here to add to your pressures as an employer by telling you what to do.

Instead, at a time when things are moving and changing fast, we just want to make sure you’ve got some useful and practical information when you need it.

In terms of workplace wellbeing, the coronavirus situation presents a few different things to think about, and we’ve chosen resources that can help with each of them:

  • A pandemic isn’t just a physical health issue; it’s a mental health issue as well. Mind has produced a guide for anyone who’s feeling worried about this. It covers lots of issues to help support the mental health of yourself and others in the coming weeks and months, including those with existing mental health concerns.
  • It’s likely that many of us have found ourselves working remotely much more, quite suddenly. We have two guides to keeping yourself well if that’s you: one with lots to think about, and one that quickly lists some key advice.
  • On the other side of things, whether you’re an employer, line manager or concerned colleague, there’s lots you can do to improve life for others who are suddenly working remotely. We have two guides to help with setting up your staff at home – one with lots of detail on mental health, safety, infrastructure and more; and one with quick tips on supporting their wellbeing. Then, there’s a useful tool for keeping in touch with your team’s wellbeing and support needs, wherever they’re working.

It’s a fluid situation, so we’ll keep updating this page as and when we find new, high quality, resources that can help.

However, we think too much information can sometimes be as bad as too little, so we’ll keep this page focused. If you’d like to see more, you can always search our site for everything we have related to home working, or everything related to coronavirus.

Finally – just so you have everything you need in one place – here’s the UK government site with advice and latest updates for employers and the public.


Resources in this toolkit: