Watch CCIQ's chamber webinar: Mental Health and Wellbeing
Empowering chambers to support your business community's mental health and wellbeing
Hi there,
Thank you for registering for the 'Empowering chambers to support your business community's mental health and wellbeing' webinar. You can now watch the webinar on demand to revisit what our industry experts have to say on the importance of mental health and wellbeing for small businesses and to explore how chambers can support your business community, including the resources, information, and support available.
Watch Now
To ensure CCIQ can deliver you high-quality webinars and resources, please complete this 2-5min survey and provide your feedback.
Complete Our Survey
Speaker slides
Click below to access each speaker's slides
Speaker links
Links provided by Linda:
- New Access for Small Business Owners Stakeholder pack – includes FAQ, social media times, key messaging and a range of other resources
- New Access for Small Business Owners landing page and enquiry page
- Research and information from Beyond Blue on the relationship between financial wellbeing and mental health
- Free online training: Mental Wellbeing: Support yourself and Small Business
- Counting on U course for small business advisors
- For any interested in a speaker or presentation about mental health, please consider Beyond Blue's speakers program
- Resources for having a conversation: Generally, At work, and R U OK Conversation guides
- Support yourself and Small Business: This free training includes a module on checking in with small business Mental Wellbeing
Link provided by Ed:
Links provided by Amanda and Linda-Ann:
- Wellness Coaches
- Southern and Metro Queensland Small Business Financial Counsellors
- Northern Queensland Small Business Financial Counsellors
Links provided by Cherie:
- Queensland Workforce Strategy: Good people. Good jobs: Queensland Workforce Strategy 2022-2032
- Small business support services
- Wellness Coaches for SEQ: Business Wellness Coaching
Q&A
Q – What kind of articles / information is available on Ahead for Business?
A – (Ed) All the information on the Ahead for Business digital hub is centred on small business owners and mental health, with the aim of providing tools and resources that helps small business owners manage the stress related to running a business and improve mental health and wellbeing at work for themselves and their staff. The resources are in a variety of formats including written articles, podcasts, videos, toolkits, and blogs and Q&A’s with real small business owners.
Q – How long does it take to complete one of the check-ups?
A – (Ed) The check-ups vary in length – the Business Stress test will take around 3 minutes, Mental health check-up approximately 5 minutes, and the Wellbeing plan is a little more involved, and could take between 15 minutes to an hour depending on how many elements you choose to include in your plan.
Q – What is the eligibility criteria of Wellness Coaches or the Small Business Financial Counsellors?
A – (Amanda and Linda-Ann) All eligibility criteria is available on our websites. Individual assessments can be made if a business owner would like to contact us to check.
Q – How are clients referred to Wellness Coaches or the Small Business Financial Counsellors?
A – (Amanda and Linda-Ann) The referral options are flexible and varied. Direct contact details, email and phone numbers, are available for all Wellness Coaches and Small Business Financial Counsellors. Please visit our respective websites.
Q – How did you find out what support programs were already happening in your business community?
A – (Damien) We started by asking members and executive what support they use and it was quickly apparent that there really wasn’t much available specifically for business.
Q – Was it hard to get your committee on board with doing activities related to mental health and wellbeing?
A – (Damien) No, our entire executive team are 100% committed and always have been.
Q – How often do you talk about mental health with your members?
A – (Damien) We discuss mental health with members in person every 4 - 6 weeks at our meet 'n' greets but more often we regularly check in with members via email or text.
Q – How would you respond to a staff member who is turning to alcohol rather than dealing with mental health issues?
A – (Ed) This is a sensitive issue, some things to consider are:
- Normalising help-offering and help-seeking in the workplace (not just at points of crisis or case by case); this could be making sure mental health and wellbeing is a priority/focus (discussed in team meetings reg/posters on walls, resources available);
- Management/leadership modelling good coping behaviours/seeking help/discussions about mental illness in the workplace
- Consider whether there is anything about the workplace culture or structure that is preventing the person from opening up about their mental health (e.g. stigma, competition for roles/clients, etc)
- Manager or colleague prep for a conversation by looking up resources/support services, thinking about what they’ll say
- For the actual conversation start with a concrete concern (e.g. I’ve noticed XYZ behaviour; are you okay?). If they acknowledge there’s an issue with drinking, you can share resources/service details, or alternatives to drinking to cope with issues. If they don’t acknowledge there’s an issue, but work is being impacted then you may need to take official action.