Prioritizing Provider Mental Health

Just a gentle reminder that you are a whole person.

People who have the job of helping other people are required to set their own needs, feelings, and lives aside to provide for others. Helpers can become so skilled at setting aside their personal lives for work, that they set aside their own needs in their personal lives as well. If this is something that you are experiencing, here are a few gentle reminders:

• The only way to have the capacity to care for others is to care for yourself and take steps toward overall wellness.

• You are a whole person with relationships, responsibilities, and stressors outside of work. Acknowledge that balancing your roles can be challenging.

• Examine the things that you are balancing in all aspects of your life. It's okay to make adjustments to prioritize the things that matter most to you.

• Everyone needs support. Who can you talk to when you need help? What can you do when you need to recharge?

Boundaries can be challenging to maintain and adjust.

Even if a person is good at maintaining healthy boundaries in one part of their lives, they can struggle with boundaries in other parts of their lives. Someone who is skilled at maintaining firm professional and ethical boundaries with their clients can struggle to have healthy boundaries with family members, friends, or commitments.

When asked to do something, you don't have to say "no" to maintain boundaries, you can offer an idea, option, or solution that will work for you.

It is absolutely okay to say "no." Explanations or excuses are not necessary.

Just because something has been done in the past, doesn't mean that it has to be done in the future. Progress only happens with change.

Time management isn't about doing more in every moment in the day.

A person's time is a valuable commodity. While there are many things that must be accomplished the value of rest time, reflection time, and creative time are consistently undervalued in our culture.

Examine the actual time that it takes to accomplish certain tasks and make sure that you are creating a schedule that truly reflects the work that needs to be done.

Creating breathing room in your schedule is necessary and expected. Creativity and ideas need space and air to grow.

It's okay to let go of the pillars of burnout culture.

There are high levels of burnout in the helping professions in part because of a cultural pressure to always do more with less that has set the expectation that success can only come from a person devoting their life to work.

Having hobbies, interests, and activities that we enjoy outside of work is

a necessary and important part of life. Make sure that you are giving these activities the priority and time that they deserve.

Powering through when you are sick or unwell is usually not the best option to return to full strength. It's okay to ask for help, time off, or adjustments to allow time to heal.