HSC campaign urges everyone to prioritise workplace mental health

The Public Health Agency (PHA) and Health and Social Care (HSC) organisations have launched this year’s HSC mental health and emotional wellbeing campaign urging people to prioritise workplace mental health.

Between now and World Mental Health Day on 10 October the five local HSC Trusts, the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) and the PHA are encouraging people to take 10 minutes for mental health self-care using the ‘Take 5 steps to wellbeing’.

Fiona Teague, Regional Lead for Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing at the PHA, said: “No matter the workplace environment you are in, whether you’re working in an office, warehouse, hospital, shop, have a job outdoors or working from home, we are urging everyone to use the ‘Take 5 steps to wellbeing’ to help maintain good mental health and wellbeing throughout the day.

“Life and work events can present stresses, big and small, and these can impact your mental health. Taking care of your mental health and managing stress helps to improve your personal resilience. It can also help you if you support or care for others.

“It is vital that we champion mental health in the workplace; it is important we promote a culture at work where people feel supported, helping individuals to thrive and contribute to overall productivity. By doing this it can not only help in work but also in day to day life.

“Use this campaign as an opportunity to take 10 minutes out of your day, use the ‘Take 5 steps to wellbeing’ as your guide and if you are an employer, encourage and support your employees to practise self-care.”

The ‘Take 5 steps to wellbeing’ are: Connect, Keep Learning, Be Active, Take Notice and Give.

Top tips for your 10 minutes to ‘Take 5 steps to wellbeing’:

Connect

Connect with the people around you: family, friends, colleagues, neighbours, work, school or in your local community. Think of these relationships as the cornerstones of your life and spend time developing them. Building these connections will support and enrich you every day.

Keep learning

Don’t be afraid to try something new, rediscover an old hobby or sign up for a course. Take on a different responsibility, fix a bike, learn to play an instrument or how to cook your favourite food. Set a challenge you will enjoy. Learning new things will make you more confident, as well as being fun to do.

Be active

Go for a walk or run, cycle, play a game, garden or dance. Exercising makes you feel good. Most importantly, discover a physical activity that you enjoy; one that suits your level of mobility and fitness.

Take notice

Stop, pause, or take a moment to look around you. What can you see, feel, smell or even taste? Look for beautiful, new, unusual or extraordinary things in your everyday life and think about how that makes you feel.

Give

Do something nice for a friend, colleague, or stranger, thank someone, smile, volunteer your time or consider joining a community group. Look out as well as in. Seeing yourself and your happiness linked to the wider community can be incredibly rewarding and will create connections with the people around you.

Fiona continued: “Everyone can benefit from the ‘Take 5 steps to wellbeing. If we can build these in to our daily routine, we will soon start to see the mental health benefits and improvements to our overall wellbeing. It will help us to engage our minds, be more active and connect with others. Take 5 will start to become part of our lives and, if you are already practicing them, then encourage others to try them out and feel the benefits.”

You can find out more about the HSC mental health campaign, the work of the Health and Social Care Trusts, details local services that provide mental health and wellbeing support and the ‘Take 5 steps to wellbeing’ at www.MindingYourHead.info

We also want to encourage everyone to learn more about mental health and suicide prevention by attending a training course. You can find out more about the training available across Northern Ireland at www.MindingYourHead.info/training