World Mental Health Day...
Come to our free webinar at 11am.
October 10th is World Mental Health Day, and we’d love to invite you to our free webinar at 11am.
We’ll be looking at ten practical tips for taking care of your own wellbeing, as well some of the broader influences and impacts on freelancers’ mental health, and an opportunity to reflect upon the year so far.
» Register your details here.
Don’t forget, the Leapers survey is now open.
If you’ve already taken part, THANK YOU - and now you can help us reach more freelancers. Please share the link with your fellow freelancers, or post publicly on social platforms. We need as many voices to be heard as possible.
This year’s theme of World Mental Health Day, set by the world federation of mental health, is “access to services”, and something we all know too well is a gap for the self-employed.
In fact, 70% of the self-employed aren’t sure where to find support for their mental health at work - a huge number, which hasn’t declined over the past few years.
So, to try and do our part in tackling this issue, here are three things we can all do to bring this number down.
Normalise asking for help - one of the biggest barriers that people face is feeling like they have to deal with issues alone. By sharing your own experiences of how you looked for support, it can help others feel like they’re less alone, and could encourage them to gently reach out for help too.
Tell a fellow freelancer - you are already aware of Leapers, but also will be part of other supportive communities and spaces which offer peer-support and pastoral services. If you’ve found something that’s helpful to you, share it in your communities, via social, or personally to specific people you think might also appreciate it.
Encourage hirers to signpost - if you’re working with a client right now, did they provide you with an onboarding pack? Was there any signposting to useful resources or support for your mental health in there? If not, mention to your client that it could be a useful way for them to easily support you, and other freelancers they work with. We can help them pull together a resource pack too - feel free to introduce us, and we’ll do the legwork.
That’s what individuals can do, but there’s more to be done at a systemic level too.
We’re currently working closely with Mind UK and their Mental Health Leadership Council to ensure that resources and guides for the self-employed are a part of their offering, and informing new frameworks being drawn up to better support SMEs, and a number of partners who are looking to update and develop better resources for their freelancers. We’re also hard at work redeveloping our resources library, so it’s up to date, and easier to navigate - but it’s a huge work in progress!
If you’re an organisation who works with freelancers, and would be keen to explore how you can better support them - just hit reply and say hello.
That’s all for today!
✌️ mk