Mental wellbeing support at Aalto

Are you worried about your own or your co-worker's coping or mental well-being? Team leader, are you worried about your team member’s mental well-being? Sleeping difficulties or vague annoyance? Does it feel difficult to leave to work in the morning? Do you feel you can't cope even if you do your best? Or has your colleague's behavior become worrying?

Every second of us suffers from mental disorder during our lives. As common as these challenges are, people are still afraid of being stigmatized if they talk about their problems. However, exhaustion and mental health challenges are the biggest cause of sick leave in the academic world.

Taking care of your own and the work community's mental well-being easily escapes one’s attention in the hurry of everyday life. Efficient, hardworking people feeling work engagement get exhausted without noticing it themselves, and the mind of a researcher or expert may not separate work from leisure time.

Concern about your own or your colleague's well-being is a good reason to seek for support. The earlier a difficult situation is brought up, the easier it is to find help and solutions. So don’t hesitate to ask for help! 

In this slide set (in Finnish and English) you find in a nutshell Aalto's mental wellbeing support.

Aalto offers several ways and services to help you in stressful situations:

• Talk to your supervisor/team leader. Supervisor/team leader discuss with your team member. - Aalto's sustainable well-being at work -model (PysTy discussion and follow-up) often provides help 
• Contact school or department/unit HR – you can get support and advice on how to proceed.
• Wellbeing Desk - an easy-access service desk where all Aalto personnel can receive advice and guidance on work wellbeing and work ability.
• Solution-focused coaching for all personnel is a low-treshold and pragmatic coaching for all kinds of challenges or goals related to wellbeing at work
• Occupational health care is there for you – it is recommended to contact your school’s occupational health nurse first, she/he can refer you to the expert if needed, Occupational health care Otaniemi, Occupational health care Mikkeli
• All doctoral students can also get support from the Aalto psychologist services. These services are available free of charge, regardless of your employment status. See further details here. Be sure to also read the student welfare and well-being section on the page “Being a doctoral student at Aalto” found here.
• Mielen Chat and Mielen Sparri (Mental Chat and Sparring) are easily accessible digital mental wellbeing support services provided by Terveystalo (occupational health care): you can anonymously chat and discuss with an expert and receive instructions for possible follow-up. More information on Mielen Chat and Sparri you find on Aalto's occupational health care page. 
• You can contact occupational safety or the shop stewards
• Harassment contact persons  [email protected] ja [email protected]
• The Aalto chaplains’ services are available to all members of the Aalto community regardless of religion or philosophy of life
• Aalto’s tools and training for self-leadership. 

Other useful links:

• Mieli Mental Health Finland
• Finnish Red Cross - Psychological first aid
• Ukraine crisis
• HelsinkiMissio - Crisis Services for Youth
• Nyyti ry- Mental wellbeing support for students

Only in Finnish:

• Mielenterveystalo
• Espoon mielenterveysyhdistys EMY ry
• Mielenterveysyhdistys Helmi ry.
• Vantaan mielenterveysyhdistys Hyvät Tuulet ry.