Mental wellbeing / Psychosocial support

Learning and discussing together with other staff members in workshop settings can help you to build knowledge and specific skills to better manage daily stress, crisis, and difficult situations for yourself, family members, and in support of your colleagues. The Staff Counsellor’s Office at UNHQ and in other duty stations offers workshops throughout the year open to all staff. Managers can also request workshops for their teams affected by particular issues or concerns, or in cases where a session may help staff prevent the impact of or manage stressful factors that arise in the work they do.

Mental wellbeing is a feeling that you can realize your abilities, can work productively and with personal satisfaction, and can participate in other aspects of life through social ties, family, community, or any interests you may choose to pursue. In the UN we give attention to mental well being as there are many challenges in our work that may test our resilience and at times wear on our personal abilities to cope. Adjustment to living in a different host country and working with multiple cultures and languages is not always easy. Some assignments and missions involve extensive travel and at times presence in crisis situations and danger spots. You are sometimes separated from family members with stress on both sides.