Try a new approach for handling stress and maintaining positive mental health

As we approach the end of the fiscal and academic year, it’s important to be mindful of the stress that faculty, staff and postdoctoral associates may experience. The university’s Employee and Family Assistance Plan provider, Homewood Health, offers a number of programs and resources to help employees and their family members cope with stress and anxiety.

Managing your stress

While stress is unavoidable, there are a number of preventative strategies you can use to help maintain positive mental health. Homewood Health offers a mental health fitness kit for faculty, staff and postdoctoral associates to help bring to the forefront the reality of mental health and its impact on your day-to-day work.

Homewood Health also offers a number of free courses to help faculty and staff manage stress including: Taking Control of Stress; Taking Control of Your Mood; Resilience; Embracing Workplace Change; among others. All e-courses are two hours in length, and participants are awarded a certificate upon completion. Additionally, Homewood Health offers Plan Smart Counselling with programs such as Relationship Solutions and Financial Consultation.

To access or browse through this extensive programming, create or log in to your Homeweb account and click on ‘Tools’ and then ‘E-Courses.’ Homeweb also offers a number of resources through their Wellness Library including articles on getting adequate sleep, building your resiliency and identifying areas of tension, to name a few.

Self-care starter kit

Looking after yourself is an important part of living a happy and healthy life. Self-care refers to the activities and practices that we deliberately choose to engage in on a regular basis to maintain and enhance our health and well-being. Homewood Health offers a self-care starter kit for faculty, staff and postdoctoral associates with tips on how to identify and analyze your self-care needs and develop an execution plan.

Assisting a colleague in distress 

In the event that stress leads to distress, Staff Wellness in collaboration with WellBeing and WorkLife and the SU Wellness Centre have put together an important handout for faculty, staff and postdoctoral associates entitled Assisting a Colleague in Distress. The information in this handout will help faculty, staff and postdoctoral associates recognize a colleague who is in distress, identify internal and external resources that are available to help and enable them to make a good referral. This publication is based on the Helping Students in Distress resource developed by the SU Wellness Centre.

Counselling

Counselling services are available through Homewood Health via face-to-face, by telephone, video or online. Counselling services are confidential and may help to address a variety of personal challenges including stress management, family conflict, depression, anxiety and workplace issues.

Call Homewood Health 24 hours a day, seven days a week to book appointments or access immediate help:

English:  1.800.663.1142 
French:  1.866.398.9505 
TTY:  1.888.384.1152 
International (call collect):  604.689.1717

The University of Calgary’s Campus Mental Health Strategy is a bold commitment to the importance of mental health and well-being of our university family. Our vision is to be a community where we care for each other, learn and talk about mental health and well-being, receive support as needed, and individually and collectively realize our full potential. 

Psychological Support is one of 13 factors illustrated by the National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace (National Standard). The University of Calgary is a recipient of the Excellence Canada Mental Health at Work Silver Level Certification in this area. Visit WellBeing and WorkLife to learn more about the implementation of the National Standard at the University of Calgary and to learn about existing programs and resources that support each of the 13 factors.