Looking After Your Mental Health During the Coronavirus Outbreak

Magdalena Oswiata • May 20, 2020

It’s Mental Health Awareness Week here in the UK. Our Health and Safety Manager, Magdalena Oswiata, has put together some vital information and tips on how to look after our mental well-being during this time.

Public Health England’s (PHE) Every Mind Matters platform has launched new advice focused on looking after people’s mental well-being during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. With many feeling worried, anxious or isolated during these challenging times, Every Mind Matters highlights that there are lots of things we can do to look after our mental well-being and help others to prevent these concerns from becoming more serious.

To help get this vital message across, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are supporting Every Mind Matters and have narrated a new short film, which you may have seen on national TV recently. If not, you can watch it here…

5 Tips for Maintaining Mental Well-being During the Coronavirus Outbreak:

Talk about your worries . It is normal to feel worried, scared or helpless about the current situation. Maintain contact with friends and family via phone and video calls to share how you are feeling.
Keep a regular routine and set goals. You may need to set a new routine for now. Try writing a plan for your day with the things you can still do at home, such as watching a film, reading a book or completing a puzzle. Setting goals and achieving them gives a sense of control and purpose. Maintaining good-quality sleep makes a big difference to how you feel mentally and physically too, so it’s important to get enough (the Every Mind Matters sleep page provides practical advice).
Manage your media and information intake. If 24-hour news and constant social media updates are making you worried, try to limit the time you spend watching, reading or listening to coverage of the outbreak to once or twice a day.
Do things you enjoy and try something new. Focusing on your favourite hobby, learning something new or simply taking time to relax indoors should give you some relief from anxious thoughts and feelings and can help boost your mood. Look online for free tutorials and courses.
Look after your body. Our physical health has a big impact on how we feel. At times like these it can be easy to fall into unhealthy patterns of behaviour that end up making you feel worse. Try to eat healthy, well-balanced meals, drink enough water and exercise regularly. You can leave your house, alone or with members of your household, for one form of exercise a day – like a walk, run or bike ride. But make sure you keep a safe 2-metre distance from others.