Looking after yourself
Taking care of your mental health is essential when you are helping someone else.
Beyond Blue has developed a practical guide for advisers, friends and family who provide support for small business owners.
The role of small business advisors is about more than just providing guidance on debts, accounts and assets - it’s about people.
As professionals, small business advisers equip small business owners with the right information so they can run their business successfully.
With the support of this resource, now they can also play an important role in supporting the wellbeing of those in small business and empower them to look after their own mental health.
And it’s not only professionals who can provide support sometimes, it’s those closest to them such as their family and friends, who small business owners will turn to when times are tough.
The ‘Supporting small business owners to improve their mental health and wellbeing at work guide’ developed by Beyond Blue equips small business advisers such as accountants, bookkeepers, business advisers, tax agents, industry associations and representative bodies, as well as family members and friends, with practical information they can share with small business owners.
The guide allows these advisers, who often see first-hand how stress can affect small business owners, to provide support without needing to be a trained counsellor or clinician.
The guide includes practical tips on:
- providing immediate support to a small business owner
- recognising signs of poor mental health
- speaking with someone you’re concerned about
- how small business owners can improve their situation.
It also provides links to resources such as personal and workplace wellbeing plans, actions that small business owners can take themselves, and information on how advisers can look after their own mental health too.
