Taking Care of You
We all spend countless hours ensuing the safety and wellbeing of inmates in the jails but are we taking care of ourselves?
As you know, as corrections professionals we often spend our days in a work environment that is repetitive and filled with confrontation, aggression, criticism, blaming, bullying, and abuse. Due to the high incidence of alcoholism, divorce, and suicide within the corrections filed there as been a considerable amount of discussion recently regarding staff wellness-and rightfully so!
We know that this career can take a toll on us if we do not have outlets, support mechanisms, coping skills, and others means of ensuring our own wellbeing so what can we do? Here are a few things that have been shared recently:
Accept what we can and can’t control.
Stop sweating what we can’t control.
Stop being angry about what we can control.
Stop being angry at the decision makers.
Eat and drink with health in mind.
Exercise on schedule.
Address your health issues, including mental health.
Develop a support system and use it, we all need to vent.
Ensure you have interests away from work.
Take time off and steps to avoid burnout.
These ideas are simple, but the fact remains that we must make taking care of ourselves a priority in order to not fall victim to the career. What are you doing and what can you do to ensure you are taking care of you. Please give it some thought. Stay safe!