Genuine compassion and concern are inherently helpful, psychologically and physically
Helping with Mental Health provides knowledge, skills and confidence in promoting good mental health in ourselves and others. The workshop helps participants understand when and how they should intervene to help. It provides hands-on practice in conducting a ‘helping conversation’, including referral options, confidentiality issues and self-care. The workshop is relevant in one’s personal life as well as at work. It provides an understanding of the psychosocial factors that impact mental health and gives guidelines and activities in improving those factors. It also provides practical strategies for managing people with mental health issues at work.
Interview with Sharon Bent
Modules
Helping With Mental Health
Module 1, Understanding Mental Health, begins with participants’ general experiences of mental health issues leading to an understanding of mental health as a continuum – from very poor to thriving. The module then gives a brief overview of the prevalence of mental health disorders globally. The main causes are discussed briefly as well as typical legislative responses to mental ill health as it plays out in the workplace.
Helping With Mental Health
Module 2, Helping Self & Others, begins with typical indicators of a person whose mental health has declined. We then outline a structured and practical process to conduct a ‘helping conversation’ well, giving participants plenty of opportunity to practice and develop this valuable skill. Included are guidelines for referral, confidentiality and self-care. Finally, the module deals with the all-important issue of how to help if someone may be suicidal.
Module 3, Addressing Mental Health: Resilience
Module 3, Addressing Mental Health: Resilience, focuses on two ways to address mental health: 1) helping self and others to develop higher resilience and 2) make positive changes to the psychosocial factors that impact on mental health. Particular attention is paid to work practices built around sustained high stress and practical suggestions in modulating stress are suggested. Finally, participants consider ways to address the most relevant psychosocial factors that impact negatively on mental health in their workplace.
About Sharon Bent
Sharon is an organisational psychologist and executive coach, with over 20 years’ experience providing bespoke consulting, training and executive coaching services to individuals and organisations in ASX-listed companies, parliament, universities and the public sector. Known for her practical, incisive and strengths-based approach, Sharon draws on evidence-based interventions to create solutions with her clients that ensure the desired behavioural and workplace change is achieved and sustained.
Sharon is passionate about building individual and organisational capability to create resilient, engaged and high-performance workplaces. Her special interests include using strengths to create positively deviant performance, developing performance coaching skills in people managers, positive leadership, re-teaming, high level motivating and influencing, workplace civility, managing challenging behaviours, mastering career transition, wise and ethical decision-making, psychosocial health and safety, conflict resolution, learning to learn, and self-coaching.
She has also managed large teams of professionals in the university sector and draws on this hands-on experience to ensure the solutions she develops with leaders are practical, realistic and fit-for-purpose.
Her high level of professionalism, integrity and discretion has meant that Sharon is also regularly asked to assist clients with high public profiles to manage sensitive and complex people management issues due to the confidence and trust they place in her counsel.
As a skilled facilitator and executive coach, Sharon consistently receives praise for her use of humour and straight-talk to make the learning/coaching process fun and engaging.
Sharon is a member of the Australian Psychological Society (APS), College of Organisational Psychologists, Interest Group in Coaching Psychology and International Positive Psychology Association. She has also served on the Australian Psychological Society’s National Ethics Committee, contributing to the maintenance of high ethical and professional conduct amongst psychologists across Australia – a voluntary position for which she was nominated by her peers. In her capacity as a field supervisor for Masters of Organisational Psychology students, Sharon is also an Adjunct Supervisor (Placement) Macquarie University, Sydney.
