Being a mental health provider can be challenging and demanding, so it’s important to make sure you’re taking care of yourself too! A great way to start is with some simple self-care strategies. Here are some of them:
Taking time for regular breaks throughout the day
Mental health providers are often so dedicated to providing quality care that they forget to take necessary pauses throughout the day. Everyone needs regular breaks to function at their best and mental health providers are certainly no exception. One self-care strategy for mental health professionals is to take short but meaningful breaks throughout the day.
These breaks can be spent hiking, meditating, listening to soothing music, journaling, or whatever activity brings peace and joy. By regularly taking time for yourself, you can remain balanced and energized to continue giving excellent care to your patients regardless of how challenging the work can be. Allowing regular moments of rest gives one a chance of burnout while providing better care in the long run.
Scheduling days off or vacations
Scheduling days off or vacations can be a tremendous self-care strategy for mental health providers. A little bit of distance from the pressures of everyday life can do wonders in restoring one’s sense of balance and well-being. Study after study confirms this to be true, as even a short break from the stresses experienced in daily life can be hugely beneficial for our physical and emotional health.
This is especially important when dealing with challenging conversations with clients – having a few days away from work can give you the chance to check in with yourselves, process what you’ve been through, and come back refreshed and reinvigorated to keep doing crucial work. Taking regular breaks just might be the key to finding long-term success as a mental health provider, so don’t hesitate in scheduling yourself some quality “me-time”!
Staying organized
Staying organized can be a challenge for any mental health provider, with the added task of managing patient information and numerous forms. One great self-care strategy to manage this workload is with the help of a mental health EMR (electronic medical record). By investing in an EMR system for your practice, you not only make your life as a clinician easier but also ensure that all documents are secure and safe with fully compliant documents and analytics.
An EMR allows for fast accessibility with centralization, eliminates redundancies with automated processes, and helps save time with accurate data capture. Ultimately, with the help of the organized capabilities provided by the EMR system, you’ll have more physical and emotional energy to focus on providing exceptional patient care.
Connecting with friends and family
To ensure your mental health is taken care of, it’s important to focus on the basics like connecting with friends and family members. Reaching out to particularly close friends and family members can be an excellent way to get regular support, which is especially needed during times of stress or burnout.
Making time for social activities with loved ones or setting up a weekly call for catching up helps to demonstrate that mental health care professionals understand their own value and are willing to invest in themselves. Ultimately, incorporating small amounts of quality time with loved ones into your self-care routine can make a world of difference!
Eating well-balanced meals
Eating nutritious and well-balanced meals is an important part of self-care for mental health providers. It can provide you with the energy you need to take care of yourselves and your clients. Eating meals that include all five food groups ensures that you get the vitamins and minerals needed for optimum health, without feeling overstuffed or sluggish after a meal.
Additionally, eating regularly helps regulate blood sugar levels which, in turn, helps maintain better concentration and focus. By scheduling regular mealtimes throughout the day, mental health professionals can ensure that they make time to nourish their bodies as well as their minds.
Getting enough sleep and rest
Sleep and rest are essential elements of self-care that mental health providers must make a priority in their own lives in order to best serve their clients. If a provider is chronically sleep deprived, it can lead to poorer decisions and service provision. It’s important for therapists to keep regular work hours, unplug from technology at night before bedtime and make sure they are able to get an adequate amount of sleep each night.
Additionally, taking care of body needs such as healthy eating and exercise can be helpful in establishing healthy circadian rhythms. Avoiding stimulants like caffeine late in the day and establishing a regular schedule for a wind down can also help promote healthier sleep habits.
Setting boundaries with difficult clients or situations
A critical self-care strategy for mental health providers is to set boundaries with difficult clients or situations. This important step helps protect the provider from becoming overwhelmed and burned out, yet requires considerable emotional effort and skill in order to be successful. Practicing self-care within this context requires providers to have adequate self-awareness and awareness of the situation in order to identify potential risk factors, remain attentive to their own feelings and carefully consider how best to respond.
Setting boundaries may involve various approaches such as immediately disengaging from an unhealthy peer relationship or simply taking a break while still staying connected to an emotional client rather than completely disengaging. Whatever form it takes, setting boundaries is a powerful tool in helping mental health providers maintain positive physical, emotional, social, and spiritual well-being in their practice.
Everyone’s self-care plan will look different because everyone has to find what works for them; however, these strategies can be used as a starting point to help set yourself up for success.
