Mental health affects how we think, feel, and act. It also influences how we cope with stress, make healthy choices, and relate to others. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and, due to the stress brought on by COVID-19, this is a particularly important year to focus on this aspect of well-being.
Balanced You is here to support employees and their loved ones in taking care of their mental health. During the month of May, Balanced You will focus communications on mental health tips and resources.
Owning Your Feelings
For the first week of Mental Health Month, Balanced You is focusing on the topic “Owning Your Feelings.”
Owning your feelings means naming and accepting them. Are you experiencing stress, sadness, grief, joy, worry, or anger? These feelings, and any others, are valid. Allowing yourself to name and experience your feelings, rather than ignore and push them down, will allow you to better cope and maintain resiliency during difficult and uncertain times.
Owning Your Feelings Tool
To further explore your feelings, we encourage you to take a look at the Owning Your Feelings Tool. This tool, which can be found here, was developed by Mental Health America and offers helpful facts and tips, and provides an activity template with a list of feelings to help you better understand and cope with challenging situations. Access the Owning Your Feelings Tool here.
Additional Mental Health Resources
In addition to the Own Your Feelings Tool, Balanced You has resources King County employees can access to support your mental health. Many of these resources have updated their offerings to include coronavirus-related content.
- Counseling via telehealth: Regence and Kaiser therapists and other healthcare providers, including doctors and physical therapists, can be accessed from your home, via telehealth. If you have a provider, ask them if telehealth is available. If you don’t have a certain type of provider and would like one, contact your insurance company.
- Making Life Easier and Employee Assistance Program: Making Life Easier (MLE) provides many free counseling and referrals, credit and legal consultations, mortgage assistance, childcare resources and referrals, and other daily living supports. The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provides free counseling to help King County employees navigate workplace stress.
- Better Choices, Better Health: Better Choices, Better Health is a six-week, online, small-group based workshop designed to improve the lives of people living with long-term health conditions, including anxiety and depression. This program is free for King County employees and dependents.
- Mindfulness: A mindfulness practice can help you reduce stress at work and at home. Free classes and videos are available to King County employees. The classes are live, interactive, and available online during the pandemic. The videos range from two to 14 minutes and are available on-demand.
- Mental Health Resource Guide: View this guide for additional King County and community-based mental health support resources.
For questions, more information, or suggestions, contact balancedyou@kingcounty.gov.
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