Embodying change: Transforming power, culture and well-being in aid organisations

Lana shares how International Rescue Committee (IRC) implement their Duty of Care programme, providing professional mental health support that covers all staff and their families. They provide comprehensive support in a number of different languages, offer virtual wellbeing support and are thinking about the cross-cultural issues that are important in meeting their Duty of Care to their staff around the world. Our conversation with Lana is an important example of how good practice is being developed in the sector to meet some of the key challenges identified in our mapping report in terms of the provision of mental health care to staff.

Lana Baqaeen is a Staff Care Specialist at the International Rescue Committee (IRC), where she works as part of the global Duty of Care program covering the Middle East and North Africa. Staff wellbeing is at the core of everything she does in her role at IRC. Lana comes with 10 years of HR experience and a Master of Science in Organizational Psychology.

This podcast series is part of the CHS Alliance Initiative to Cultivate Caring, Compassionate aid organisations being led by Melissa Pitotti and Mary Ann Clements who host this podcast and which you can read about here:

https://www.chsalliance.org/get-support/article/cultivating-caring-compassionate-aid-organisations/

If you'd like to get involved with or support the work we are doing please do get in touch at [email protected].

Imogen Wall is a former BBC journalist and UN spokesperson, now an independent communications trainer and advisor. She specialises in crisis response with a particular emphasis on mental health, peer support, critical incident management and safeguarding in humanitarian contexts. Her previous frontline humanitarian work includes field postings in Indonesia (Aceh), Sudan, Haiti, Philippines and HQ work in New York and Geneva. Recent clients include DFID, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, CrisisCast, Care International and RedR. She is also the founder and lead administrator of the Fifty Shades of Aid group, an independent aid worker support community on Facebook.

​Imogen is a qualified Mental Health First Aid instructor and has a lot of experience in crisis management, particularly in an international context and with reference to reputation management and staff care. You can find Imogen via her website: https://www.imogenwall.co.uk/ where there are also more resources that support this conversation.

Mental health and employers - Refreshing the case for investment

: https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/consulting/articles/mental-health-and-employers-refreshing-the-case-for-investment.html

Mental Health in the Workplace, Mind
https://www.mind.org.uk/workplace/mental-health-at-work/

This podcast series is part of the CHS Alliance Initiative to Cultivate Caring, Compassionate aid organisations being led by Melissa Pitotti and Mary Ann Clements who host this podcast and which you can read about here:

https://www.chsalliance.org/get-support/article/cultivating-caring-compassionate-aid-organisations/

If you'd like to get involved with or support the work we are doing please do get in touch at [email protected].

Dr. Mills trained in medicine at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine in London. He is an accredited specialist in respiratory diseases and still practices medicine on a part-time basis at the Whittington Hospital in London. In addition, he has a masters degree in Infectious diseases and a PhD in the field of cell biology.

Peter has been at the forefront of the digital health “revolution” over the past two decades, having helped a number of organisations in the UK and US develop their innovative solutions. He has published extensively in the scientific literature on the efficacy of digital health interventions.

Peter has been Medical Director for Cigna since 2015; responsible for the clinical management of their European plans. More recently he has taken on an external-facing role and works closely with clients and providers to drive global high-quality care, and ultimately superior outcomes.

This podcast series is part of the CHS Alliance Initiative to Cultivate Caring, Compassionate aid organisations being led by Melissa Pitotti and Mary Ann Clements who host this podcast and which you can read about here:

https://www.chsalliance.org/get-support/article/cultivating-caring-compassionate-aid-organisations/

If you'd like to get involved with or support the work we are doing please do get in touch at [email protected].

Hitendra Solanki is a senior lecturer in development studies at London South Bank University. He’s been active in the development and humanitarian sector for over 16 years. Most recently, he worked as a Mindfulness and Wellbeing Adviser in Action Against Hunger UK. He also led the 3-year Mindfulness & Wellbeing project as part of the Start Network’s Transforming Surge Capacity programme. You can see us reference his work in the recently published paper, “Working Well? Aid Worker Well-being and How to Improve It.”

You can find Being Inside, the project he describes in the show, here: https://www.beinginside.com/

‘Being. Inside.’ is a wellbeing initiative that brings regular live guided mindfulness meditation online, as we move through these uncertain times.
Mindfulness practice has been scientifically proven to enhance self-awareness, improve psychological wellbeing, increase general health, reduce stress and anxiety, and strengthen mental resilience. These live, hourly sessions, professionally delivered by qualified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) trainers, with long-standing experience in the humanitarian and academic sectors, are provided completely free, and are open to everyone, everywhere, every weekday. To book a place, please visit the Being. Inside. website where you can register for any of the live sessions you wish to participate in.

This podcast series is part of the CHS Alliance Initiative to Cultivate Caring, Compassionate aid organisations being led by Melissa Pitotti and Mary Ann Clements who host this podcast and which you can read about here:

https://www.chsalliance.org/get-support/article/cultivating-caring-compassionate-aid-organisations/

If you'd like to get involved with or support the work we are doing please do get in touch at [email protected].

In this show, you'll hear Melissa interview Don Bosch, Director of Risk Psychology and HEAT Training at the Headington Institute. Don is a licensed clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst with 35 years of experience and understands human behaviour and brain function. Outside of Pandemic, Don is often in the field doing debriefs, working with global response teams, and providing psychological support for security trainings. He is a lifelong mountaineer with a love for adventure, travel, exercise, and family.

In this episode, Melissa talks with Don about his recent paper, “Managing Emotions During a Pandemic: Understanding the Effect of Uncertainty.” It can be found here: https://headington-institute.org/files/academic-article--pandemic-w-images-correct_50321.pdf

The Headington Institute, has a team of psychologists helping humanitarian and development organisations ensure the well-being of individuals. They’ve created a suite of materials related to COVID-19 - including 2-pagers on managing emotions, media exposure, social distance/ isolation and moral injury – all consolidated here: https://headington-institute.org/topic-areas/732/covid-19.

This podcast series is part of the CHS Alliance Initiative to Cultivate Caring, Compassionate aid organisations being led by Melissa Pitotti and Mary Ann Clements who host this podcast and which you can read about here:

https://www.chsalliance.org/get-support/article/cultivating-caring-compassionate-aid-organisations/

If you'd like to get involved with or support the work we are doing please do get in touch at [email protected].

In this show, you'll hear Melissa interview Kristin Duncombe a therapist and couples counsellor, life coach, and author. She’s based her career on working with international and expatriate individuals and families following her own experience of growing up across Africa and Asia as the child of a diplomat and having lived internationally most of her adult life. You can check out her work at her website here: https://www.kristinduncombe.com/

The cognitive distortions identified by David D. Burns can be found in his 1999 book, The Feeling Good Handbook and the article Kristin referenced was published on 19 March 2020. It was an opinion piece in the New York Times by Jennie Weiner, an associate professor of educational leadership, called “I refuse to run a Coronavirus home school: my kids are watching TV, playing video games and eating cookies.”

This podcast series is part of the CHS Alliance Initiative to Cultivate Caring, Compassionate aid organisations being led by Melissa Pitotti and Mary Ann Clements who host this podcast and which you can read about here:

https://www.chsalliance.org/get-support/article/cultivating-caring-compassionate-aid-organisations/

If you'd like to get involved with or support the work we are doing please do get in touch at [email protected].

In this show, you'll hear Melissa interview Tanya Wood, Executive Director of CHS Alliance. You can find out more about CHS Alliance at https://www.chsalliance.org/ and about Tanya here.

This podcast series is part of the CHS Alliance Initiative to Cultivate Caring, Compassionate aid organisations being led by Melissa Pitotti and Mary Ann Clements who host this podcast and which you can read about here:

https://www.chsalliance.org/get-support/article/cultivating-caring-compassionate-aid-organisations/

If you'd like to get involved with or support the work we are doing please do get in touch at [email protected].