{"id":11257,"date":"2021-11-05T15:59:23","date_gmt":"2021-11-05T04:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smithink.com\/?p=11257"},"modified":"2021-11-08T16:22:54","modified_gmt":"2021-11-08T05:22:54","slug":"mental-health-challenges-for-accountants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smithink.com\/2021\/11\/05\/mental-health-challenges-for-accountants\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental Health Challenges for Accountants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Everyone\u2019s struggling! Anyone who thinks the last 18 months has been a picnic really has to look at their own self-awareness and wonder why\u2026 As accountants and advisers, you are dealing with your clients on a day-to-day basis that are struggling to pay rent, pay their staff, pay their suppliers and to literally keep the doors open. And with the extra workload and compliance on Accountants to help their clients, your own health and wellbeing may have taken a back seat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recently had the opportunity to speak to Peter Annis-Brown. Peter is a qualified Mental Health Educator and Master Mental Health First Aid instructor who conducts workshops, training, and courses throughout Australia to leaders, businesses and organisations looking to increase the overall health and wellbeing of themselves and their teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a Mental Health Educator and practitioner, Peter is seeing two distinct camps at the moment. Those people and businesses that are struggling because the ongoing lockdowns are impacting on the delivery and demand for their work. In the other camp (which I see Accountants) they are struggling because they are overwhelmed with the amount of work they are being asked to do to support those businesses that are needing government and other support to try and stay open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his work, Peter talks about \u201ctwo selfs\u201d, self-awareness and self-care. If you can realise when you are stressed, anxious or in a depressed mood, and you also know some of the triggers that put you there, you can implement strategies and ways to stop you getting too low and becoming chronically unwell and developing a mental health illness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter mentioned to me the two most common questions he gets asked when running courses and educating people being, \u201cwhat are the signs and symptoms that are present to look out for?\u201d And \u201chow long do you need to be feeling down for?\u201d

In answering these questions, Peter advises firstly that only a recognised professional (GP or Psychiatrist) can diagnose a mental illness and that he is not one of these, but you can follow the following checklist that looks at changes in behaviour and what to look out for.
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Physical Signs and Symptoms<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n