Social Connectedness: Friendship and Support Is A Very Big Thing
Witmer and Sweeney found in their study that people with few ties to others had 2 to 5 times the death rate as those who had more ties.
Social connectedness can be a powerful tool in preventing illness by acting as a buffer to the effects of stress. The benefit of friendship is by garnering the emotional support of a community during difficult times.
Social Connectedness: Recognizing The Benefit Of Friendship and Support
Workplaces are also recognizing the value of support in their organizations. Effective leaders are evaluating their teams and ensuring that they reduce isolation, celebrate occasions and successes, develop trust through effective communication, deal with conflict and gossip in a direct and open way, promote a casual and friendly atmosphere and develop a support network through human resources, an EAP or connection to community contacts.
Unfortunately, many people in the workplace do not make the effort to utilize this great coping strategy and the busier we have become the easier it is to let our existing friendships go by the way-side. So where do we start?
Beverly’s Hot Tips On How To Build Resilience and Celebrating International Friendship Week:
- Smile and say hello to those around you
- Connect with your co-workers informally
- Be part of a work team
- Participate in wellness programs and seminars
- Make use of human resources, EAP, and health services
- Call, write or email those friends that you have lost touch with and book a date to get together
Contact Beverly about hosting a mental health workshop for your teams on how to build resilience. Learn relaxation strategies, and discover coping tips to deal with stress, change and crisis!
If you have some strategies to share – comment on this posting!
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