Care to Care

Inspiration

The current condition of isolation and the subsequent phase of progress restarting work and social activities are characterized by a transversal condition and by the common of psychological suffering. This has led and will lead to an increase in the number of people who will need psychologists trained for this emergency. Each person will react on their own dispositional and situational characteristics, of possible discomfort that may arise, "normally" and not "pathologically" as anxiety, stress, depression, anger, and in general as a feeling of psychological insecurity. These in turn can lead to the accentuation of pre-problems of psycho-physical health problems, to a harmful compensatory exchange, to a difficulty of concentration also in work performance.

There are many psychological support initiatives that have already been activated by various institutions in the Covid emergency and some generative organizations already foresee this type of support. Our idea wants to stand out through suitable technological platforms (apps) so that the service can be used by everyone with the protection of personal privacy. Our idea is that we want to spread this type of service for the benefit of all workers and to increase the concepts of the generative training. Offer them help in reintegration into work during phase 2 of the emergency to maintain an adequate level of psychological well-being. All this will be possible through:

• Generative Training for all members of the company to create general and psychological well-being
• Psychological support service and career counseling that every worker can access in the way he feels most suitable

Project's goals:

• Collect the needs and respond directly or by sending them to the reference structures, to the possible psychological, health and working problems that may arise in the employees during activities carried out in an emergency Covid- 19.
• Preventing burn-out due to work-related stress due to the current health conditions determined by the COVID-19 emergency
• Promote an optimal level of general and psychological well-being by increasing personal resources to face uncertainty
• Promote an optimal level of working well-being during the phases following the health emergency
• Increase awareness of having made suitable information on health security
• Increase awareness that the company has put in place all individual and group protection devices to allow the safety of the working environment
• Increase motivation in order to reduce the difficulty to complete the activities caused by anxiety. Scientific literature defines motivation as a set of forces and energies that originate both inside and outside of individuals. Motivation pushes workers to intentional action in order to determine the direction, intensity and persistence of the person's behavior during his work experience.
• Reduce the risk of injury related to stress and concentration difficulties
• Increase the perception of your workplace as a resource
• Increase a deep sense of cooperation and community

What it does

Care to Care conceived a solution that is mainly divided in two pillar:

1. Generative Training: Generative, empowerment-oriented training, to date, it has already been tested in companies through these guidelines (Gheno, 2010):

• Phase 1: developing desire: a centering of the person on desire and not on the problem. Desire is a skill to be acquired and trained.
• Phase 2: to weaken the psychological difficulties: to remove forces from the defense mechanisms, killer, which are activated with desire. The fear of not making it, tends to reduce and reduce the desire.
• Phase 3: develop vision: defeated psychological killers help the person to have a positive vision of what it will be like after fulfilling the desire.
• Phase 4: recognize the path taken and the path to take: helping the person to recognize his own resources that have allowed him to gradually defeat the psychological killers and progress in achieving his goal.

In particular, our project will focus on:

• Training on the topic of change by providing all workers (starting from managers) with suitable tools to manage stress, from a generative perspective.
• Training on the management of the working groups following the Covid-19 emergency.
• Training with respect to effective communication both in order to be able to disseminate suitable safety measures to be respected in one's own work environment, and to be able to raise awareness on suitable relationship methods; since adequate worker information is deemed of central importance not only on risks, but also on prevention and protection measures. In this crisis situation, in fact, information in addition to biological risk and containment measures for contagion, should concern work stress and the actions (such as psychological support) that can be taken in this regard.

2. Listening desk (online-apps)

• Collection of needs (mourning dimension, elaboration of new ways of being together with others despite the social distancing, the theme of uncertainty) and direct response or by sending to the reference structures, to the possible psychological, health and working problems that can arise in employees during activities carried out in an emergency Covid-19. This is because it is considered of fundamental importance, in addition to the fear of contagion, the possible state of anxiety and stress of the workers in having to face new working methods and having to live with an uncertainty regarding the future that this situation has entailed. There is therefore a need to learn to live with this feeling of disorientation and a secure base to rely on to feel reassured.
• Set up virtual self-help groups led by a psychologist, where people can compare and share.

How I built it

We build our business through the validation of our hypothesis interviewing small, medium and big companies (10): the results show that on average 36.6% (range 0% -75%) of employees could have anxiety states due to work reintegration during phase 2 of the health emergency. We created a focus group among the team members We searched and made contacts on the slack platform We created a brain storming on the limits and potential of the project We held online meetings between team members to create the material and video to present We followed the Hackathon webinar We contacted the mentor who helped us to underline the strengths and weakness of our project We build our business through the validation of our hypothesis interviewing small, medium and big companies (10): the results show that on average 36.6% (range 0% -75%) of employees could have anxiety states due to work reintegration during phase 2 of the health emergency. We contacted AIDP, a network of 17,500 members, over 3000 active members, 16 regional groups, an international network, which promotes a serious and responsible development of managerial culture in the human resources sector since 1960.

Challenges I ran into

The impact of the solution, in our project, starts from the fact that, if prolonged over time and accompanied by intense pressure, stress, in general, but in this case caused by the health emergency, can determine an exhaustion of psychological resources and in some cases the emergence of burn-out (syndrome resulting from chronic stress in the workplace, not adequately managed). Therefore, intense and prolonged tension and pressure can lead to an underestimation of the perception of the risk and of the protective measures to be adopted, which can lead to inadequate or sufficient behavior and procedures. All these effects can have an immediate impact on the management of the health emergency, as well as on the health and well-being of the person. They therefore require immediate risk management and containment. It is therefore clear how psychosocial risks that can lead to the emergence of work-related stress are included and how proper management of these risks, even in normal conditions, guarantees the improvement of working and well-being conditions organizational, as well as that of the individual. In addition, it should be stressed that, generally, the management of risks related to work-related stress privileges already normally organizational interventions, however, the present health emergency condition, makes it necessary to strengthen these interventions also focusing on individual support and psychological support, making available specific psychological support and welfare actions. Among the general objectives of the project there is therefore the prevention and containment in the workplace of the psychological consequences of the emergency, which is achieved through prevention, monitoring, information, training and psychological support strategies for managers and employees. Psychological support is particularly necessary as a treatment for possible manifestations of acute or post-traumatic discomfort, to encourage the return, recovery and maintenance of work, while at the same time seeking to increase a deep sense of cooperation and community in companies, summarized in the concept: "everyone protects everyone" from a generative perspective.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

The project has a high degree of sustainability over time thanks to the generative training of managers and employees, training that can also bring well-being to people (Gheno, 2010). The model of person that underlies this training is a person who carries within himself a desire to feel recognized, useful, to generate and give meaning to his actions despite moments of uncertainty. This project can be considered sustainable as the generative action is transitive, passes from the individual who performs it to the beneficiary of the action itself (from the subject to the object and vice versa) (Magatti & Giaccardi, 2014): in generative organizations the leader it coherently combines vision, its distinctive trait, with action and is able to aggregate different subjects, by age, experience, skills and transforms individual differences into an activator of generativity (Cappelletti, 2015). Furthermore, in a company, the relationships of care and generative behaviors within the teams are a source of strategic adaptability for the company as the psychological space that is created and the generative relationships are a source of creativity in favor of the adaptation and do not trigger defensive responses to long-term change (Carmeli, Jones, & Binyamin, 2016). Taking care of team members means being genuinely interested in the other's need, with empathy and taking into account what happens in the other person's life regardless of the role played within the company (Carmeli et al., 2016 ). This project is aimed at transforming the company from a place where there is purely business, to a place where there is a group of people who share personal stories, perspectives, objectives and values, both in crisis conditions such as the current health and in any future crisis conditions. Teaching the company how to assume a role of aggregating factor, giving clear information and responding to the needs of its workers. So at the end we are proud of our idea because is that the restart of economic activieties must be generative: not only short-term profit but looking at the medium-long term "together" company and workers. We all have to learn to live with the uncertaintly that can lead to a mental illness but if we are living "a human experiences that contributes and promotes the lives of others and of themselves"; then this will bring psychological well-being to all.

What I learned

Having the idea is not enough, you need to know how to use it both in terms of specific contents and technologies useful for its realization (this last skill is to be acquired).

What's next for Care to Care

Promote a network of partners with associations of local economic categories, association of psychologists, doctors and psychiatrists. AIDP gave willingness to assist us in the development of this project. We foresee a first phase of 6 months of testing at a company of up to 10 employees, a company of up to 50 employees and a company of over 100 employees. A company of 20 employees has already given us availability. Seek funding sources on local and European tenders or non-profit foundations. The following project can be an opportunity to change the Companies not only as a place where business is done, but also as a group of people who share personal stories, perspectives, objectives and values, both in crisis conditions such as current health conditions and in any future crisis conditions. With this project we can help the company improve the environment and the working climate. We support you to keep people at the center. Collective sharing of personal and professional values, goals and stories allows employees to feel involved. In this way, the company could be a harmonious place as well as a business place. The focus of the project is on the person and on the working social group. We try to bring the entrepreneur to look at the company's profitability together with the well-being of its employees.