03 Aug Caring for Staff, Clients and Learners

As part of Fashion-Enter Ltd’s ongoing commitment to work practices that improve wellbeing, recognise mental health as an issue and to reduce absenteeism at work due to ill health Jenny Holloway, CEO of Fashion-Enter Ltd has undertaken a Level 2 Counselling Course. 

Jenny commented: “Following Covid we noticed a large increase in staff and learners being disconnected, afraid and feeling totally isolated. Having a history of understanding poor mental health and how this can impact on family and friends, I realised that there needs to be a way of reaching out and knowing the right way to speak to people that display poor mental health. It is such a delicate area and talking to people that may display symptoms of poor mental health has to be approached with great sensitivity. This is why I decided to go on the 12-week course and learn how to be able to talk to people in the right way, so that’s not confrontational.” 

Jenny undertook the 12-week course with Wandsworth Council Lifelong Learning and spent an intensive three-months undertaking the course with associated homework. 

Jenny further commented: “It was difficult completing the course but it was certainly worthwhile and gave me a real insight into the world of counselling. The most single important lesson I learnt from this course was the importance of listening. When people are unwell then the last approach you should be taking is telling people what to do. You need to listen to what is said and what is not said and then offer supporting guidance so that individual can make an informed decision themselves.” 

“I also learnt that you cannot ever say you won’t break a confidence. If a person is mentally unwell and they may be a risk of harm to themselves or others then there is a duty of care to ensure that they are kept safe.”

The fundamentals of this course have been to introduced in seminars with the tutors and consequently this knowledge is passed on to the learners as well. In all Fashion-Enter Ltd’s inductions with clients and learners mental health, wellbeing, safeguarding and prevent are all discussed.