Charlie Jacobs is the senior partner of Linklaters and is based in London.

This U.K. Mental Health Awareness Week, Linklaters senior partner Charlie Jacobs shares his experiences of feeling low during the COVID-19 crisis and some of the strategies he is using to lift his spirits.

At Linklaters it's part of our culture to look after the health and wellbeing of our people, which of course includes mental health. Current social distancing measures are having an impact on people's mental health and we believe it's important to be open about this.

Last week, I shared with the firm in my weekly video that I was experiencing a dip in my spirits along with the seven simple strategies listed below which helped me. 

  1. Stepping up my client interaction, something that always gives me great energy. 
  2. Noticing that my "bad week one habits" were creeping back in, such as spending more time on the IT devices late at night. This encouraged me to re-establish some boundaries such as allowing myself proper wind-down time in an evening.
  3. Having a spring clean of my working environment and feeling much better for it.
  4. Relaxing my early morning exercise routine – I decided I was becoming a little bit too fanatical (as did my family!). Have dialled it back a bit and am getting some extra sleep.
  5. Thinking about my own household and feeling grateful that my family are all currently in good health. Something which we can never take for granted and we all know people who have been impacted by COVID-19. 
  6. A haircut is always something that cheers you up, even if it's a home haircut by one of my four children!
  7. Took some annual leave to get a long weekend with the family.

Nearly all of us will by now have had our mental health tested to some degree over the last few weeks and months. The reasons for this will vary, and an individual's past experiences of mental health will not necessarily indicate how they experience lockdown.

In fact, many who were feeling stressed and anxious just before, may now be finding a greater sense of general wellbeing. 

We are the first to admit that we are still finding our way and we are not getting it right all of the time, but here are some of the things we have been trying at Linklaters. As a firm, our focus has been on supporting our people as social distancing continues for a sustained period of time.

We have been adapting our established programmes and facilities to ensure that they are available to our people remotely, such as our strictly confidential and free psychological support service, and in-house GP clinic.

We have also developed a Health & Wellbeing COVID-19 intranet site to share a wealth of webinars and resources on matters ranging from mental health and fitness, to arts and culture, and support for working parents.

A good example of this is the webinar we recently held with our in-house GP and a consultant psychiatrist to provide practical and reassuring advice for both the physical and psychological symptoms people may experience. This session has been shared with our internal teams as well as with our clients.

We also recognise that regular exercise is one of the most important things we can do for our physical and mental health, and it has never been more important. Throughout this period our in-house Fitness Centre has been setting weekly fitness challenges, in addition to partnering with fitness offering Les Mills in London to bring some of their on-demand content to our people.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we have continued to ensure that our communications are clear and transparent and have received survey feedback from our people on the strength of the messages that they've received and the support available.

This approach is consistent with our longstanding commitment to creating an open and positive environment, that supports and encourages the physical and mental wellbeing of our people, and where people feel comfortable and able to talk about mental health.

As senior partner, I was very happy to share my experience and what we are doing to support our people, in the hopes that it encourages others to start sharing too. This week my challenge to each of you would be just to talk to somebody about how you are each finding things right now. 

Sometimes nothing is more powerful than conversation to #endthestigma.

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