The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast - The highs and lows of working in mental health services at Christmas time

Episode Date: December 19, 2022

Thank you so much for your support and enthusiasm for the podcast – this episode signifies our 1-year anniversary! So, it must be Christmas time again! What is it like to work in mental health at Christmas time? Here are the highs and lows! I hope you find the episode useful. The Highlights: (00:29): Welcome and thanks for the last year! (01:23): Technology fail! (02:33): Different reasons for working at Christmas. (03:24): Christmas can be triggering for some (04:17): Time off matters(05:26): What does Christmas mean to you, your clients and colleagues? (06:19): Practical steps to help the festive period run smoothly for your clients(07:25): Increased pressures at Christmas 2022(10:30): Support for isolated people at Christmas (11:35): Practical steps for working in winter(13:33): Thanks and close Links: Grab your copy of the new book: The Aspiring Psychologist Collective: https://amzn.to/3CP2N97  Get your Supervision Shaping Tool now: https://www.goodthinkingpsychology.co.uk/supervision Connect socially with Marianne and check out ways to work with her, including the upcoming Aspiring Psychologist Book and The Aspiring Psychologist Membership on her Link tree: https://linktr.ee/drmariannetrentTo check out The Clinical Psychologist Collective Book: https://amzn.to/3jOplx0 To join my free Facebook group and discuss your thoughts on this episode and more: https://www.facebook.com/groups/aspiringpsychologistcommunityLike, Comment, Subscribe & get involved:If you enjoy the podcast, please do subscribe and rate and review episodes. If you'd like to learn how to record and submit your own audio testimonial to be included in future shows head to: https://www.goodthinkingpsychology.co.uk/podcast and click the blue request info button at the top of the page. Hashtags: #aspiringpsychologist #dclinpsy #psychology #assistantpsychologist #psychologycareers #clinicalpsychology #mentalhealth #BPS #traineeclinicalpsychologist #clinicalpsychology #drmariannetrent #britishpsychologicalsociety #mentalhealthprofessional #gettingqualified #mentalhealthprofessionals #mentalhealthprofessional #mentalhealthprofessionals #workingwithpeople #supportatwork #personalandprofessional #worklifebalance #traineepwp #christmas #mentalhealthatchristmas #staffteam #mdt

Hi there, it's Marianne here. Before we dive into today's episode, I want to quickly let you know about something exciting that's happening right now. If you've ever wondered how to create income that works for you, rather than constantly trading your time for money, then you'll love the Race to Recurring Revenue Challenge with my business mentor, Lisa Johnson. This challenge is designed to help you build sustainable income streams. And whether you're an aspiring psychologist, a mental health professional, or in a completely different field,

the principles can work for you. There are also wonderful prizes to be won directly by Lisa herself. And if you join the challenge by my link, you can be in with a chance of winning a one-to-one hours coaching with me, Dr. Marianne Trent. Do you want to know more? Of course you do. Head to my link tree, Dr. Marianne Trent, or check out my social media channels, or send me a quick DM and I'll get you all the details. Right, let's get on with today's episode. If you're looking to become a psychologist, then let this be your guide. episode. Without a merry entrance that this will be a year since the Aspiring Psychologist podcast was launched. So Christmas

Eve 2021, I released three episodes, the first three episodes of the Aspiring Psychologist podcast. So you've been able to listen to that for a year and many of you, it's been my great privilege to have you listen to me weekly and I've become part of your routines, which is lovely. So this episode I did record already and for some reason I could not get my mic to work properly. So I managed to record the whole episode thinking it was fine and it wasn't. So it might well be a little bit of a run through. I'm going to have to let that annoyance go, aren't I? Technology doesn't always work for us i couldn't get i couldn't get it to work on stream yard but i'm now getting it

to work on zoom so i'm gonna do it in a slightly different way but hopefully you won't hear or see any changes when you actually do listen um or watch this on youtube or either listening via your usual podcast platform. So we are thinking about Christmas in mental health and what it means for us to be staff members or team members as well because it's very important both of those things. So if you are working in a mental health service, you might well be part of the squabbles for whose turn it is to work anyway, who worked last year. But there are also people in teams who like a chance to slip out for a day or two and go to the office and or the hospital, wherever you're working, and go when it's quieter and get some more work done or work their way through all of the stockpile of surplus foods that have been brought in for

the share table. If you've never worked in a mental health team before, you will not perhaps be aware about the share table. And that can be triggering for people as well for people that have had eating issues in the past or currently suddenly that abundance of food and social expectations to eat it can be difficult as well and that is obviously around for our clients as well it's always worth having a conversation with them about how they navigate Christmas and the festive period and you know whether they how what they choose to eat and what other people around them eat and how that feels so I read something the other day that suggested that it's not uncommon for many of us to eat a surplus of calories to

the tune of 500 or more per day in the run-up to Christmas and the days after it. And apparently that can add up to an increase of five pounds by the time the festive period has passed. And that might well be triggering for clients that you work with, or even having that level of food and abundance and pressure can be triggering. And there can feel like a social pressure to eat or to eat a decent portion. And this is especially problematic for people that might be anorexic or body dysmorphia issues or binge disorders or bulimia, for example. So just bear in mind that, you know, it might not just be a tub of roses, might not always be seen as a good thing in the services we work with and with the clients we support. So just have an awareness that that can be problematic for people. You know, might be you, might be someone you support, might be someone in your team. And, you know, many of us will be taking time off over Christmas but for people working in in prisons or secure services

other hospitals or you know in people's homes in community support roles they might well still be working over Christmas so if you are then thank you and well done. And hopefully you will be able to take some time off either in lieu or as annual leave at a later stage because time off is really important. And when we're working in difficult, challenging roles, sometimes it can feel tricky to take time off, especially if you're carrying a heavy load. So trying to access supervision before you finish for the year, either with your regular supervisor in person or over the phone or with a more experienced member of the team can be really advantageous so that you can just feel contained and able to relax over your break that you might have from work. And of course, not everybody celebrates Christmas, even if, you know, for all intents and purposes, they've been raised Christian, they might not choose to celebrate Christmas, especially if Christmas

has been a difficult or painful time for them in the past. So exploring with your clients and even with your staff teams about what Christmas and the festive break means for them in the past. So exploring with your clients and even with your staff teams about what Christmas and the festive break means for them can be really powerful and can help people feel seen. But trauma can show up at Christmas as well from Christmases gone by. And that might be because somebody has had a painful or difficult experience happen to them in previous Christmases, or maybe because they previously celebrated and shared Christmas with people who were very important to them. But, you know, either through grief and loss or just for reasons outside of their control, those people are no longer, that person is no longer in their lives. That can feel

very triggering indeed. So having a check in with people about what Christmases have been like in the past and what they might be imagined to be like can be really useful too. Bearing in mind that lots of services will be grinding to a halt over the festive period, including pharmacies and maybe even psychiatrists, it is important to make sure that your clients have enough medication to get them through until after all the bank holidays you know we have busy lives when we're trying to sort out Christmas gifts and you know the endless Christmas jumper days and things if we've got children in schools things can easily slip off the to-do list so just having an awareness maybe developing a little checklist for yourself to make sure you've had the conversation with each of the clients that you support

about whether they have enough medication to get them through because of course it might be damaging for their mental health or for those they live with if they are not able to access all the medication that they need. And also on your checklist would be making sure that you've got updated risk and care plans in place for your clients. There will usually be a crisis or duty service available, but people are going to very much be more up to speed if they're able to read some recent documentation. And it's helpful as part of that risk planning to have, you know, a contingency plan for what a client does if they're feeling like they can't cope. So that's all useful stuff to consider with your clients ahead of any break. They might find it helpful to do some activity scheduling with you as well

to keep them feeling like they've got more options available to them when their usual sources of support might not be available. Let's take a quick break here to listen to the sleigh bells for the Aspiring Psychologist Collective book. It's still time to order it ready for delivery for Christmas Day. And the same with the Clinical Psychologist Collective and the Grief Collective, if you might fancy popping that in your own stocking or someone that you care about too. And of course, if you're, you know, making your Santa wishlist, then maybe you might like some months in the Aspiring Psychologist membership too. So do bear that in mind too. It'd be so welcome and lovely to get to know you better in that space.

Hope you enjoy the slow bells and I will speak to you in a moment. On the way to getting qualified So many tips and lessons to learn from So many things that you can try The Aspiring Psychologist Collective The Aspiring Psychologist Collective Welcome back. So this year, more than ever, there might be increased pressures on families and individuals because of the cost of living crisis. And of course, it might feel even more challenging to heat homes over the festive break. It might be worth checking in with your local community to see whether there are any warm space initiatives happening over the festive break, which is where

people are heating public spaces and offering cups of tea, maybe biscuits, some soup, things like that. And just reiterate with your clients, there's absolutely no shame in that and that they might actually benefit from that. And similarly, when I worked for Argos head office, there was the, yeah, on Christmas day, people were to be by themselves there was um a free christmas meal available and they used to pick people up and drop them off as well if they needed that so um there might well be services or support um systems near you that specifically support people who are lonely at christmas um or for you know for whatever reason are going to find it more challenging to be by themselves.

So, yeah, check that out. And similarly, you know, it might be that you might need to help pave the way for clients to be able to access food banks over the festive period. So having that conversation with people about whether they've got enough food for the festive break, especially given there's a couple of bank holidays where often supermarkets will be shut. With the shortest day of the year in the UK being the 21st of December, we might also notice that people are experiencing more symptoms of seasonal affective disorder. And so, you know, just holding that in mind,

we can think about the advice of trying to get some daylight, perhaps by going for a stroll, sort of first thing in the morning when you wake up and the sun's coming up, and maybe thinking about getting, if you're working from home, getting, you know, daylight bulbs for any of the lamps that you might sit by for much of the day. But yeah, having a chat with your service users about how they notice their mood fluctuate throughout the year, especially in the colder months can be useful. And not everyone likes Christmas. Not everyone likes a Christmas party. You know, we are either extrovert, introvert, or I believe ambivert, which is somewhere in between, and we can do both. And yeah, it might

not be quite the social frivolity that you might find it or that others might find it. And so yeah, just know that if you don't want to go to the christmas party you don't have to go um and if you find it difficult or if your clients find it difficult or challenging to be around people who might not have been good people to them in the past we can empower them to to say no as well you get to choose they get to choose um especially if they're adults but um when it's difficult to be around people and you feel like you don't have control that can feel really triggering and really challenging so yeah I'm hoping that you have a nice festive break whatever you're up to time off when we're working in these demanding jobs can be so important and being able to yeah to clock off and know that you are feeling contained

and like you've done everything that you potentially could do to try to ensure that the service and the people that you support within it are going to have the best possible time off from the service or from you if you are working over the festive break, then yeah, hoping you have some time off at a future time. But also there can be, you know, joyful times about working. I certainly have worked on Christmas morning when I was a home carer and very much felt privileged to be able to spread some warmth and cheer to people on Christmas morning. So yes, thank you for being part of my world. Thank you for the important work that you do. Sorry, this episode is slightly shorter. I had said it all already. And yeah,

darned microphones, not sure what's going on. Hopefully it will sort itself out. Maybe it's tired after a year and it will sort itself out maybe it's tired after a year and it will sort itself out with some renewed vigor in the new year so yeah thank you for listening i've been part of my world and looking forward to catching up with you for our next episode of the aspiring psychologist podcast which will be coming to you from 6 a.m monday take care if you're looking to become a psychologist then let this be your guide Monday. Take care. Without a merry entrance My name's Jana and I'm a trainee psychological wellbeing practitioner. I read the Clinical Psychologist Collective book.

I found it really interesting about all the different stories and how people got to become a clinical psychologist. It just amazed me how many different routes there are to get there and there's no perfect way to become one and this kind of filled me with confidence that no I'm not doing it wrong and put less pressure on myself. So if you're feeling a bit uneasy about becoming a clinical psychologist I'd definitely recommend this just to put yourself at ease and everything will be okay but trust me you will not put the book down once you start.