How Can Self-Care Improve Employee Mental Health?

An organisation with positive mental health is more likely to thrive under difficult global and national circumstances. Research also tells us that resilient leaders are more likely to recuperate from daily stressors and adapt better.

There’s a lot of talk going around about the value of maintaining mental health challenges in the workplace. A recent study by WHO revealed that emotional and behavioural difficulties such as depression and anxiety cost the global economy a significant loss in productivity (US$ 1 Trillion). More than 1/3rd of the employees are more stressed about their jobs than people were a generation ago.

While the importance of maintaining positive mental health is never understated, it is critical that a comprehensive approach to it is promulgated across all organisations. One of the aspects of mental healthcare, and unfortunately once that is often overlooked, is self-care. Self-care has outcomes not just for an individual’s mental health but for their physical health as well. 

But, what is self-care?

Self-care has been described and defined in various ways but to capture it in the context of mental health - it is a conscious act a person takes to maintain their physical, mental and emotional health. It can take various different forms depending on the person. This includes specific activities that you could engage in to enhance your mood, attain emotional well-being, and relax yourself. 

How is self-care beneficial for an employee?

Self-care is proven to increase productivity, strike a balance between an employee’s personal and professional life, enhance self-confidence, build resilience and foster self-compassion. 

An employee’s emotional state directly impacts their work life. There are research studies that clearly demonstrate a link between engaging in self-care and job satisfaction. Traits such as resilience are proven to give employees a competitive advantage in the workplace. 

Self-care allows one to be compassionate, which is essentially being more open to your own inadequacies, failures, and traits. Self-compassionate employees experience less burnout and emotional exhaustion too.

What is Amaha’s idea of self-care?

Amaha brings together clinical expertise, years of professional experience and qualified engineers and writers to curate a personalised self-care experience for employee concerns, whether it’s depression, anxiety, sleep, anger or building happiness. 

4 week plans

Our 4-week personalised plan is tailored to the employee’s mental health needs. The Amaha self-care app is based on the idea of self-care in a pocket. It only requires one to spend 5 minutes a day doing an activity to reflect on one’s thoughts, enhance mood, relax, or learn simple strategies to deal with challenges.

Chatbot for crises

Allie, our relief bot, is built by our team of experienced mental health professionals and talented engineers to give support in times of need. One can chat with her whenever they feel low, anxious, worried, or need someone to listen, without judgement.

Built by experts

Amaha believes in a strictly expert-driven approach to mental healthcare with the application of the latest science. Through our self-care, we bring all of that to the palm of the hand in a way that’s not just easier to use but also easy to apply in your life. Everything on the app is based on scientific research and the principles of CBT, positive psychology, and mindfulness.

Mood and goal trackers

Self-care is all about being in touch with yourself - your thoughts and your mood. Our mood tracker allows employees to keep tabs on their mood, analyse any patterns they may have, and work on them. In addition, we believe that mental healthcare should be goal-oriented, and therefore - we have implemented goal trackers for the users to set their own goals and achieve them.

The bottom line

The Amaha App is aimed at helping an employee cultivate compassion for themselves, relax when the day gets the best of them, improve their mood as they get back from their work break, and build a habit of caring for themselves, among other things. Employees may go through a series of stressors in their personal life - self-care protects them from reaching a breaking point when that happens.