Do you remember a time before COVID-19, the virus that has disrupted so much of life as we knew it?
In 2013 (yes, that’s right almost 10 years ago) the World Health Organisation (WHO) predicted that mental health conditions would be a leading cause of disease by 2020. By January 2020, WHO was publishing data indicating that depression was certainly leading the way in terms of social and economic burdens globally.
And the world added COVID-19.
And a result of COVID-19 we now speak of a mental health crises.
Here in Australia, we have more people seeking treatment and support for mental health conditions than we do people available to offer the support. This is also true in the USA and Great Britain. We have a massive talent shortage. We don’t have enough people to do the work that needs doing.
This is creating another crises for the leaders and owners of our health businesses.
I am speaking to so many people from all over the world who are trying to manage the pressures of growing waiting lists, trying to find staff who can do the work, whilst maintaining their own health.
THIS IS NOT EASY AND PLEASE KNOW I SEE YOU
In speaking to many health professionals leaders, I am learning that so many of us are feeling the pressure to help people in crises NOW. We will often let go of our own schedules and boundaries to help people who are in crisis NOW.
Many of us believe that this will be a short lived, social issue and the increased will “settle down soon”. It’s not. It won’t. It hasn’t.
What concerns me is that I am speaking to more and more health business owners who are keenly feeling the emotional load of:
- Speaking with people in crisis who are desperate for help, who they simply cannot help and feeling incredibly guilty about it.
- Hiring too fast just because we have the people to serve and then needing to mop up the mess of an inappropriate hire.
- Negating their own boundaries and increasing their client load to help the people in need and burning out.
Lovely health professionals full of empathy and compassion, this is NOT sustainable, and I am concerned for you.
Thank you for stepping up and stepping into the gap and wanting to help the people in need. However, I want you to be able to last the distance and stay the course. I want you to be fit for purpose.
So, if you find yourself feeling weary, burnt out, emotionally burdened and over stretched then please keep reading.
Please know, you do not have to solve this crisis all by yourself.
However, if you keep taking on more and more clients, working longer and longer hours, not taking time out and neglecting your own self care practices, I can assure you, you will be needing my Burn Out recovery program. (Yes, this is a real program, and no, you won’t find it on my website).
I want to share with you 3 things you can implement right now to give yourself some breathing space.
1. STOP trying to take your own calls. Put some space and distance between you and people calling for your services.
If you are seeing more clients, who are experiencing increasingly intense needs; and you yourself are trying to navigate your own emotions during a time of massive upheaval then you don’t need any more emotional load.
Let someone else answer your phone, answer your email enquiries, respond to changes in appointment time, take payment, FREE yourself up to do the most important work.
If you need to find someone who can help you with this, here we go:
Australia:
USA:
2. Develop a waiting list strategy.
This can be fun, and who knows, in doing this you might just create that course, product, service you’ve been wanting to create for years while serving the people in crises now, while creating the potential for recurring income, while not needing to see all the people 1:1 immediately.
3. Re-create the boundaries you have let slip. For example, when you discharge someone, do not replace them! When your 7pm on a Wednesday evening or 9am on a Sunday morning no longer need you, don’t make that time slot available to anyone else. Reclaim your own time.
What happens when we interrupt this cycle of seeing more and more and more clients, we will force ourselves to become creative in helping the people who need our help.
And in being creative we might JUST find a solution to this mental health crisis that is around us,
and
we can leave our work each day fulfilled knowing that we have played OUR part
and
help the people we can help, while maintaining our health and integrity.
Big Deep Breath
How can I help you?
If you need help with any of all of these issues, please know together we can create the way out. Simply email hello@jomuirhead.com and let me know that you don’t want to keep going the way you are, and that you are ready for some help.
Until next time, go be your awesome self.
