Mental Health

Mental health and business goes hand in hand at some point in our business lives.

Running any business is an effort of your time, emotional resources, stress levels and patience.

Like it or not, at some time in your working life mental health will touch you.

A death in the family, depression, stress or the impact of TPSD from work violence touches everyone personally, if you are human there is no escape.

OCTOBER IS MENTAL HEALTH MONTH

The 6 – 14th October in Queensland is Mental Health Week find out more via this link https://www.qldmentalhealthweek.org.au/

As both business owners and/or employees we should take some time to reflect on our personal attitude, and those within our work environment.

R U OK

The Australian Taxation Office last month focused on R U OK with presentations all over Australia, inviting Accountants, BAS Agents and a representative from Beyond Blue to share how Mental Health concerns affect our day to day work life. Want to know more about R U OK? Go to https://www.ruok.org.au/

Kevin Humphries spoke on behalf of Beyond Blue in front of approximately 80 staff in the Mount Gravatt Australian Taxation Office, but about 1400 ATO staff participated in the event.

Statistics for Depression in Australia

1 in 6 women

1 in 8 men

Statistics in Anxiety in Australia

1 in 3 women

1 in 5 men

45% of the population will experience a form of mental illness in their lives.

Kevin Humphreys joined the army and is now a a retired army Black Hawk and Chinook helicopter pilot.

Over the twenty years he served with the army as a pilot, he was not immune from the symtoms of Post Traumatic Stress.

Kevin explained to the audience in raw terms what this meant for him while still serving in the army, and how he has managed his condition today to still fly.

Australian Taxation Office Audience

We seem to get more and more callers using the excuse of mental health for late submissions. How do we know if this is genuine, or they are just playing the system?

Ask questions to the power of ten

Use searching questions that require more than a yes / no answer

Make sure your voice tone is respectful and sympathetic.

Mental Health Support – ATO Podcast InVoice Episode 8

A very important and informative episode where you will hear from Amanda Linton, Patrice O’Brien from Beyond Blue and Colin Walker who discuss Mental Health from a small business person’s perspective and as a tax professional. Patrice helps clarify two important points about mental health is that you need to have Mental Health Literacy and get past self stigma about how you feel personally about mental health.

#TaxProfessionals: To recognise #WorldMentalHealthDay & the importance of caring for the #MentalHealth of you & your clients, we’ve released a special conversation with Colin Walker, @Amanda_Linton & @beyondblue. Listen now: https://t.co/OXS1hziVRj #TaxPodcast #ATOPodcast pic.twitter.com/71df6wDcrM

— Tim Roach (@ATOTaxProfExec) October 9, 2018

Highlights from this episode include the following:

• 60% of Tax Professionals are sole traders or husband/wife teams, when this group faces mental health issues it impacts their tax deadlines, and their clients significantly.
• Tax Professionals need to understand that in achieving 80% of tax submissions, they are not alone.
• What happens when agents get behind and how can the Australian Taxation help?
• Create your own well being plan, along with a business plan
• Most small businesses are sole-traders, look at local groups you can participate in to gain much needed support
• The website of Beyond Blue has a blog with articles on how you can look after yourself
• The Beyond Blue website “Heads Up” in the small business area
• Do not wait too long to get help, see your GP or check the Beyond blue “NewAccess“.

XERO NOW : MENTAL HEALTH

Xero invited Tim Hoopman from Spinn Business Solutions and Patrice O’Brien from Beyond Blue.

Tim Hoopman shared two major triggers within our industry of Accounting that may affect our mental health.

1. Dealing with multiple facets of business at one time like staff, hundreds of small business clients, software partners and other responsiblities.
2. Our industry is faced with continual change in the technology space,  it’s difficult to keep up and maintain the same level of customer service.

Patrice O’Brien shared the statistics that depression and anxiety is a daily reality for 3 million Australians.

Find out more by watching the episode via the link below

Small Business Owners – You are not alone!

Technology is making things more efficient and faster than ever before, as a consequence small business owners are taking on more clients than ever before.

This is where many sole-traders find they become overwhelmed and fell alone.

There is no reason to be isolated in this day and age. If you are a small business owner, there are resources available on the Beyond Blue website.

Tax Professionals can find help and support with the Australian Taxation Office and their professional membership organisations.

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Amanda Hoffmann

Amanda Hoffmann is a registered Tax Practitioner / BAS Agent No.18613005, Associate of Finance, Xero, Myob & Quickbooks Proadvisor / Trainer and a Consultant for the Australian Taxation Office.

She says she is more than just a bookkeeper with experience in real estate investing, social media, podcasting, blogging and recently recording monthly youtube episodes

Amanda loves to teach smart, easy online cloud solutions and fix messy bookkeeping. Follow her on social media and say “Hi”